Lauren the Echidna Volume 2
by WhiteFireEclipse
Summary: Volume 2. Enjoy. :3
1. Chapter 1

Lauren the Echidna

Chapter 1

The Softer Side of Evil

Being used to a wide world of disasters, I have gotten to the point where natural crimes wouldn't scare me. I've been protecting my own town from any disaters that would happen, and no one seems to care anymore.

I wander these streets to find out if there was any kind of crime going on, but nothing was happening at the time. People had been staring at me, whispering and muttering to one another, telling secrets about how I had become nothing but a freak over the past few years. I knew this wasn't true...well...at least I thought it wasn't. People have seen that I had been friends with the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog and all the others for quite sometime. Being me, I would just ignore them, only until some people would come up to my face and tell me that I was the freak of the town, but I just glared at them and walked away.

But that day wasn't as well as I thought it would be crime-wise. The sky had suddenly turned a dark color, almost completely black, and a giant yellow circle appeared in the sky. I looked up and blinked, knowing exactly what this was.

"Uh oh...that looks like a Warp Ring..." I grit my teeth together and growled. The sky turned darker and a figure began to fall out of the ring. It looked familiar to me, from reading many adventures about Sonic and the others, but I already knew that this guy was trouble. My feet lept off the ground, speeding toward where the figure was falling. Since it was night time, it was a bit harder to find where he was, but as soon as I did, I noticed exactly who this was.

His eerie smirk was similar to Sonic's, but showing nothing but a row of fangs all around his mouth. Those red sunglasses glistened off of the light of the moon, followed by the black leather jacket and flamed designs on the sleeves giving his outlook a bit like a biker. He looked the type but was found just standing there glancing around for anything he could get his hands on. I did nothing but stare at this green hedgehog as I was hiding behind a wall of one of the buildings in my city of Hillsborough, North Carolina. My eyes narrowed as I wasn't aware of what was going on behind me.

A robot about a few feet taller than me had snuck up on me, its body in the shape of a lizard like serpent, its two claws reached up and grabbed me from behind and lifted me in the air. My yelp in shock had gotten the ears of that green hedgehog to twitch. He looked toward where I was hiding and saw that I was shouting for help, unable to defeat the robot that had grabbed me.

"GAH!! LET ME GO YOU SCRAP HEAP!!" I shouted louder, kicking at it. The robot hissed at me and grabbed on of my legs. My eyes widened and I shouted again for help, but all it did was toss me aside, making me land on my back, hearing a small cracking sound that left me motionless on the flat hard ground under me.

"..Ngh...ungh...ouch..what the..." I barely looked up and saw that green hedgehog standing over me, lowering his sunglasses and glaring down at me with his light blue eyes. My eyes widened again and I grunted from the pain in my back. He just snickered slightly and smirked.

"My my...you must have such a hard time keeping this city under control by yourself. Hmhmhm...with those rats gone from here, you decide to take things in your own hands...Lauren Berry." He said with a wide smirk across his face, lifting his sunglasses back up. How...how did he know my name?! He's never been to my world before. I couldn't speak at the time, because of all that pain in my back, but I tried to get up, only to have that same claw swipe across me, knocking off of a nearby cliff outside the city. The cliff led down into a somewhat bottomless pit that would be doom to any passing car to fall off of, or if anyone fell down into it. I screamed as I grabbed the ledge with both hands, pulling myself up slightly, but kept slipping. My grip was slipping every second, but I kept reaching up higher to get up, but wasn't making any progress.

"HEY! BACK OFF YOU PIECE OF SCRAP! THIS GIRL'S MINE!" This hedgehog was known as Scourge, the anti-version of the blue blur, Sonic the Hedgehog, but had his fur and eye color altered so he wouldn't look anything like the blue hedgehog he hated. Scourge raised his fist and slammed it down onto the head of the lizard bot, leaving a deep dent in it, then curled up in a ball, and spindashed into the bots main circuitry, shorting it out and finally spinning through it and landing on one knee, sunglasses covering his eyes and smirked, one hand placed on the ground. As he landed the lizard bot finally exploded into many pieces, that missed Scourge by inches, but he kept his cool and stood up, looking back at the bot, who was nothing but ashes and a few wires.

"AH! S-Someone, help me up!! I--" I then gasped finally feeling my grip slip off of the edge and a drop of cold sweat fell down my face, feeling the wind pick up under my body as I fell from the cliff. But at the same time, I felt a swift hand come out of nowhere and grab mine before I got too far down. I cringed then looked up, seeing that that hand was actually a white glove, with the black jacket attatched to it. Scourge...had saved me...but why? He wasn't the nice guy. Scourge quickly pulled me up over the side and I gasped, panting as I stared at the ground, then looked up to see Scourge walking away.

"Hey...w-wait! Why did you save me..." I asked. He stopped and looked back at me, glaring through his glasses.

"Hmph...I didn't save you, kid. I have dibs on you and no one else does. Leave it at that." He began to walk away again. I lifted my hand up, but he just kept walking away. If this was the real side of evil...then wouldn't there be a way to convince him that this wasn't the life for a hedgehog like Scourge?


	2. Chapter 2

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 2

Regeneration

This day is nothing but another...unless you call two years being an echidna got a bit tiring after awhile, for me at least. I never thought transforming back had such an affect on how my life went as a human. The insults got more insulting, and the beatings from the enemies and crime inducing people got more...well, beaty. Everything changed since the day I changed back to human. My parents had kept their forms as hedgehogs and had transported back to Sonic's world, only because they would be happier there without me. Even though they were still separated, they kept their power under check, and were able to master the things that Sonic and the others had taught them. Of course, my mother would be one of the harder ones to deal with, since she actually acted like a mother to Amy and the kids, but otherwise she was alright to them. And saying good-bye to my one love in the world, Knuckles...was one of the hardest things I had to do, but I know that in his world, he's happy.

Two years...has this really gone by? I wasn't so sure as to why this sudden appearance by Scourge, and him...saving me from a near death experience. It was indeed shocking to know this, but as I watched him walk off, something in his eyes seemed different than usual. I stood to my feet and put my hands in my pockets, then moved away from Scourge, knowing that at the time, he would cause no damage.

I had gone back to where Eggman's old base was left in ruins, its metal frame rusted to the core, but its machinery was still intact, due to my last bit of power. During the last two years I have been patrolling this city and its people in it. Many of those people appreciate what I've done over the past two years, but most still don't care. I've done many things, but to leave my parents behind in the Sonic world? That didn't seem like me...but I began to think again...what would happen if I went back and became what I once was? I found myself standing in front of the machine that had changed me back then, my eyes narrowed.

"Hmm...should I...?" I muttered to myself as I stood there. The machines circuitry was a bit shot, so I spent about a half hour working on it, since I finally learned some talent from my dad as a mechanic, then smiled at the work I did to it, which wasn't as bad as I thought. I wiped a bit of sweat off my forehead and sighed, finally realizing what my decision would be.

Meanwhile, Scourge had been casually walking around my town of Hillsborough, constantly glancing around for me, keeping himself cautious as to whatever would happen. A few regular guys wearing masks had just come out of a local bank known as Bank of America, and alarms were blaring as loud as they could, the men running for their lives from the cops, carrying big bags of cash. Scourge knew they were trouble, only smirking at the thought of guys stealing money. He felt that for some reason he needed to do something, but at the same time to just watch. Scourge 'hmm'ed at this and just continued his walk, until he heard a familiar voice shouting from the top of a building. He looked up and blinked, lowering his sunglasses.

That one very echidna that saved the planet before was back. My yellow fur had blown in the wind from the high altitude and my green eyes had gotten darker over the past two years, glistening in the moonlight. I gave the same smirk I had when I first became an echidna. In my right hand was the staff I had equipped, and my dreadlocks were now decorated with a bit of bionic metal, one dreadlock in the front was completely bionic due to my own choices. My outfit changed as well. Now with a black hoodie, two white stripes going down each sleeve in a zig-zag motion, white pants with black flamed designs on them, and black shoes with a white stripe. I smirked and my eyes narrowed down to the criminals that were robbing the bank and then ran down the side of the building at a high speed, leaving behind a few yellow sparks flying off into the air and disappearing.

The men from below glance up and their eyes widened to see this same hero that had destroyed that evil abomination, Mephiles the Crystalline Hedgehog. The staff was weld high in the air, above my head, the entire bandages around it covered in only a few genuine and pure rubies that were shining in the night light, and I swung down at them with one swing, sending out at least three white energy blades at the men, thus knocking them back onto the ground and blacking out for the time being. I stood there, twirled the staff and landed on my feet with ease and stood upright, spinning the staff again and slamming it down to my side.

"Hmph...and that's how to do it...bitches. Hmhmhm." I smirked as I stood there, in clear view of Scourge's blue eyes. He just narrowed his eyes and looked downward a bit over his sunglasses, the finally spoke,

"I see you've come back, Lauren. Tell me...what is it that made you change your mind?" He lowered his sunglasses again and smirked, showing those fangs of his.

"Who really wants to know, Scourge. I had my own decisions to make over the years. And coming back to this...was one of my last choices..." I kept my eyesight away from Scourge, keeping my staff held by my side, then it vanished into thin air.

Scourge blinked to this, remembering he heard that I had enjoyed being like the others such as Knuckles, but he just crossed his arms and stepped forward, taking off his sunglasses and placing them on top of his head, his sky blue eyes in full view.

"Why wouldn't you want such power as we have? WE are superior to the normal human beings! Why must a kid such as you hate to have such power!" He stepped forward again, clenching his fist in front of him in an angry motion. Not believing a word of this out of my mouth, he quickly spins into nothing but a green ball of razor bladed spines spinning out of control and launches off of a nearby building or two like a pinball and comes toward me. But what he didn't expect was that I was prepared entirely for his encounter, I raised up my hand and without any other movements in my body and stopped him in his tracks, even though he was still spinning and seeming to be cutting my glove into pieces. Another few seconds had passed and my eyes shot open to glare over at him, my glove being unscathed by his attack, and all I did, out of boredom, was flick my wrist upward and shot him up high into the air.

"Ngh! WHAT THE?! How can she..." His eyes quickly widened to see that I was already floating in front of his face, landing a quick lunge punch into his scarred stomach and launching him down to the ground with amazing force such as a meteor crashing to Earth. He shouted and gagged, spitting up a bit and hit the ground leaving but a crator around him about twenty yards wide. I just floated there in my place and glared down at him, then finally descended after another moment. My footsteps were heard as they came up to Scourge, who was just now getting up, coughing and grunting from the attack.

"Gahh...h-how can...someone such as you...have so much power..." He growled grabbing his sunglasses that had fallen off his head, then stood to his feet with a bit of stagger.

"You see Scourge...having the life of an echidna like Knuckles was all that great at first...but then when you have something inside you that wants to come out and reek vengence on you and destroy your planet..." I picked Scourge up by his jacket collar, "then wouldn't you want to stay normal?" My grip slipped and Scourge fell to the ground with a thud.

"Ngh...why you son of a b-" But before he could finish, he looked up into my eyes, noticing something...different. This anger in my eyes was completely different than any kind of anger that Scourge has ever prepared for. He just growled a bit and sat there, gripping his sunglasses tightly in his hand.

I then turned and walked off, turning my back to him as he scowled. My job wasn't over...there was still one specific evil that I had to attend to...whatever it was...I knew about it...I just didn't tell any of them what it was...or how dangerous it would be to them...


	3. Chapter 3

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 3

Love's Return

In the midst of the night, I roamed around the city of Hillsborough, repairing any damage that was done before. The bangs on my head were blowing in the wind, and kids were constantly coming up to me wanting either an autograph or a picture, but I sadly refused, not wanting to danger any of them over a picture. I looked back to see that the kids were looking down in sadness, but I couldn't help but stop and think for a second. Did I really want these kids to have a hero turn them down? Or maybe...if I was this so called hero, then shouldn't I be the hero that they want me to be like those years ago? It was quite a problem to deal with. The kids looked to each other and began to murmur to each other, speaking in words that were describing how I had changed. This only made me keep walking and hanging my head down in disgust, realizing that no one had actually cared about what I had done in the past. The only ones who really cared...were Knuckles and the others.

I looked up to the sky and blinked, seeing that the moon was beginning to set on the other side of the sky, and that made me wonder why the kids were out so late at night. I blinked and turned around, and noticed that the kids had suddenly vanished into thin air. This was natural. Usually kids would keep begging until the hero gives in to doing what they wanted, but these kids, were different. Somehow I began to think that these kids had contained some kind of weird energy in them. Something...dark. But it didn't concern me at the time.

The next day finally came around the corner and I was found laying down on the edge of a building that was about one hundred feet in the air. I blinked after feeling the sunlight shining in my eyes and put my hand over top of my eyes to block the light, but noticed that I was falling off the edge. My arms flailed and I caught the edge of the building and quickly pulled myself back up onto the roof with a huff.

"Phew...now I know not...to do that...again..." I panted and sat there on the edge, but then noticing another small disturbance near the fire station in the middle of Hillsborough. The Orange Rural Fire Department had alarms blaring all over the station, apparently going to some random yet dangerous fire that was happening somewhere. The thing was, one of the firemen down there that was a good friend of my father called out to me and shouted,

"Hey Lauren! We got a disturbance down in Cedar Grove! We need you down there!" I nodded and jumped from roof to roof back toward my own hometown. Usually it would take me fifteen minutes to drive there in my own car, but in this case it only took me almost less than five minutes to get back to Cedar Grove. But this wasn't any ordinary disaster,

"What the..." My feet skidded to a stop to where my dad's shop was standing, and it had been burnt to the ground, along with the house he was staying in that used to be my grandmother's home. Eyes widened, I walked around, seeing a few other fire departments such as Cedar Grove and Hurdle Mills Fire Department surounding the area, avoiding any traffic that happened to come that way. I ran up to one of the guys on the Cedar Grove Department, a tallish yet black colored man named Malcolm.

"Malcolm! What's going on here?!"

"Oh...Lauren. Good thing you're here. We just recently had these buildings burnt down by some fire like monster. We're not sure where it came from though." He replied. Fire monster? Wait...he couldn't have been referring to who I thought he was. I walked up to some of the ashes that were already put out from the fire and picked some of them up in my hand. This very handful of ashes made me glance back at where my home was burnt down two years ago.

"It couldn't be...I-Iblis...but wait, I thought we got rid of him when...ah shit..." I got up and ran up to the top of a nearby lightpole and whistled my signature whistle that could be heard at least a mile or two away, getting everyone's attention. "EVERYONE LISTEN! YOU ALL NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW! WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!" I shouted to them all with eyes narrowed.

They all looked up to me like I was crazy, but I quickly explained at what was coming our way, but it was already too late. I turned to my left and noticed a massive fireball was already heading my way and also a few down toward the firemen. Like any daughter of a fire Chief, I lept into the air and with my newly acquired ability of telekinesis, I took each and every hose from the fire trucks and sprayed as much of the water to put out the orbs of flaming disaster, but it still wasn't enough. Everyone else had taken cover behind the firetrucks, and I had stood still in my place waiting for the right time. But those orbs had gotten faster somehow and were hurdling only toward me now. As I looked up, knowing that this may have been my last stand in Cedar Grove, I spread my arms out and waited, not able to move my legs.

A split second had passed and I felt my body being moved so suddenly by a somewhat familiar figure. My eyes quickly closed from the sudden shock and I somehow passed out from it, then the other firemen were saved by many other figures of great speed that had come to the rescue as well. The orbs of fire hit the ground and singed everything around the shop and my dad's house, leaving nothing but smoldering piles of ash in the area. A few more minutes passed and everyone was now safe under a few trees deep in the woods of Cedar Grove, away from the scene.

(1) The soft wind blew through the leaves of the autumn trees and my hair blew into my face, until it was moved out of the way by a white glove covered in two spikes similar to mine. Even though I was unconscious at the time, I felt someone's lips meet with mine for about three seconds, before hearing a soft moan coming from my mouth. The figure pulled back and my mouth turned into a smile,

"..Mm..I know that taste anywhere..." My eyes fluttered open and I saw the one being that has been away from me for so long,

"Knuckles the Echidna...nice to see you again..." I sat up and was wide awake, as I wrapped my arms around him, huggin him like I did before he left. Knuckles hugged back and smiled, followed by a chuckle.

"Hehe...it's nice to see you too, Lauren."

We then shared one more tender kiss for a few more seconds before carrying on our conversation about how each of us had been over the past two years, and why I decided to become an echidna once again. This was indeed a very happy day for me, now being twenty years old, and Knuckles also twenty, we were a loss for words as to how I had gotten so strong, and how he had gotten even more handsome than before. As we pulled back, his purple eyes, now covered with only one scar, stared into my dark green eyes and we both smiled, my same blush coming back to its place after so long. The various colored leaves fell past us and we basked in the beauty of what was to become the falling of autumn and the beginning of winter...the day went on like a flash...and more thoughts were thought of as to when...or where...or even how...Iblis was to come back...


	4. Chapter 4

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 4

Regret and Worry

That day we finally moved back to where the scene was, hoping to have everything back to normal. We allowed the firemen to clean everything up, as Knuckles and I walked away back toward Hillsborough, hoping to find clues as to where those attacks came from. Casually, we walked down the side of the road, known as Road 86, carrying on a conversation that lasted about a half an hour. Sonic and the others that had arrived seemed to have changed quite a bit.

Sonic still had the same blue furred look, but this time with a bit of bangs covering his face, a light pair of red shorts on, still along with his red shoes with the white strap and yellow buckle. Tails, who was walking beside him, had his bangs frizzy and a pair of work goggles were placed on his head, followed by a light gray tank top and work shorts, of course his shoes haven't changed a bit. Next to Tails was Shadow, having his hands in his jacket pockets, this hedgehog looked even worse than before…bad boy wise. His jacket was black, lined with a tint of red and ripped at the ends for looks. He wore no pants, but it didn't matter for a male hedgehog like him. His skates were as the same, but this time with a bit of a twist, there were spikes covering the top of them in a row down the sides. Seemed like he took the look of a biker, but this hedgehog was bad.

Then came Knuckles with his scar covered eye, which was also similar to mine except that it was on my left eye, his scar covering his right eye. His muscles have gotten slightly bigger, but even with his skinny like arms; he still had all that power as he did when we first met. One of his dreadlocks on each side of his head were covered in a few bandages, also seemingly for looks, then below his dreads around his neck was another scar over his white birthmark that resembled an upside down crescent moon. It had went downward over top of his birthmark, so now it looked like a crooked "X" symbol. Nothing but a pair of white shorts covered this echidna, with a black sash like belt around his waist, holding the shorts up. His shoes were the same color as his fur, but this time with just a black stripe over it.

My smile grew a bit after hearing a few of the stories and adventures they had been through, but then it turned into a frown as I stared down in front of me, kicking a few gravel rocks from driveways out of the way and sighed. Knuckles and the others looked to me and blinked, Knuckles placing a hand on my shoulder,

"Something wrong there, Lauren?" He wondered. I glanced at him then sighed again,

"I'm not sure…"

"…I think I know what it is…" Shadow spoke with a low toned voice, eyes closed as he walked. We stopped and looked back at him. He opened his eyes and one of them was red, as the other was gray, "…You are discouraged to being one of us." He spoke so clearly and so seriously that it got my eyes to do nothing else but widen, pupils shrinking. I stood there and bit the bottom of my lip and then clenched my teeth.

"Hm? …Lauren…is that true?" Knuckles asked as he placed a hand on my cheek. My head hung down and I nodded my head slowly. They couldn't believe what I had agreed to, but they were also confused at the same time. Tails looked to me and spoke,

"But Lauren, I thought you loved being like one of us?" He looked concerned. My head raised a bit and I looked down at his somewhat kid like face. I couldn't ignore that face of his for some reason. His light blue eyes had stared into mine with worry and I blinked shaking my head.

"I-It's not…that I d-don't like it…its j-just…" My stuttering had somehow gotten worse than two years ago. Apparently when I get too nervous, I start to stutter in an event such as arguing about something. My breathing got a bit harder and I grasped my chest and grunted. This was new to them all, even Knuckles. He placed a hand on my forehead and blinked then a serious look appeared on his face.

"She's somehow sick all of a sudden…I don't know why though, La-" But before he could conjure up a breath to say my name, I lost feeling in my legs and suddenly collapsed to the ground, but only to be caught by Knuckles and Shadow, who happened to be standing there around me. My body began to shake from that sudden fever, and I wrapped my arms around me from shivering too much. Knuckles' expression got more worried than before, and Shadow urged them to follow him to a nearby house that was abandoned for many years in my town. It was covered in a few vines and some moss was spotted a few times, but it was no problem for Sonic. He walks up to the house, shoving his foot onto the dirt in the ground and scooting it back, like a bull about to charge, and somehow flickers away in a millisecond.

After only one more second the house looked as good as new, except for the fact that the wood was still a bit old, but as Sonic scratched under his nose from his overconfident nature, he chuckles as Knuckles walked inside with me in his arms, bridal style. Shadow followed suit, flicking Sonic's nose as he went by, Tails following and chuckling a bit at Sonic's face. Knuckles came to a bed in the bedroom, but was a small one that would fit only one person. He slowly places me down on it softly and sighs a bit.

"Lauren…" He muttered my name in a soft sounding voice, but got no response, due to the fact that I had passed out from the fever. Shadow came up and placed a blanket over me, leaving only my head and face in view. Sonic ran up and stared down at me, wondering if I was going to be alright. Knuckles just shrugged and stood there, staring me down as Shadow teleported the essentials needed for a sickness such as this to the room and next to the bed. He picked up a small washcloth and got it wet from the sink in the restroom and came back, placing it on my forehead, hoping to cool me down.

Knuckles did nothing but freeze in his place as he watched Shadow and Tails take care of me, and Sonic watched over the place from the roof of the house, that same smirk he always had.

About an hour passed, and everyone else had finally relaxed except for Knuckles, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding onto one of my hands that was free from under the blanket. He held it softly and kissed it, wondering if he would get a reaction. A soft moan came from my mouth again and I coughed, still shivering from the fever. My eyes then opened slowly and halfway, seeing nothing but a slight smile on Knuckles' face, happy to see that I was awake. I attempted to speak, but Knuckles placed a finger on my mouth softly and shushed me.

"...Lauren…I know you must be feeling really bad about this…but…there's no need for apologizing." He said with a soft voice again.

"H-How…did…you…know…" I asked quietly.

"Because I know you, Lauren…I know what you're thinking when things like this happen." He nodded to Shadow and he got another washcloth, dipping it into the ice cold water that was beside the bed, and then placing it on my forehead again.

"Thank you…Shadow…" I slightly smiled over to him and he just nodded back, no emotion showing on his face or eyes. I glanced back at Knuckles and spoke again, "There…was a…reason…why…I didn't want this…" I began, tears beginning to form in my eyes. Knuckles held my hand and I held it tighter.

"Why's that…?" Knuckles replied with concerned eyes.

"…I…didn't want to…endanger you…and everyone else…with whatever power…that's inside me…p-plus…I knew from my own knowledge, that you should've been with someone else by now…" I stuttered again and panted from talking too much, but Knuckles shushed me again and rubbed my hand slowly.

"Lauren…when I left this world…I made a promise to myself. I promised that I would come back…to be with you for the rest of my life…I love you that much. And I don't want that to go away again…" He looked down a bit. Hearing this from the Guardian Knuckles was indeed a shock to us all, but mostly me. I took my hand back and placed them behind me, taking off the cloth and setting it aside. My hands pushed up slowly, slightly shaking from being sick still and stared into his eyes.

"If…you…wanted to come back for me…why did you wait this long…before finally admitting this…?" I asked him with my eyes slightly narrowed and my bangs covering them halfway. He bit his lip and looked away, nothing more, "Knuckles…please answer me…" Before he could, my arms gave out and I fell back onto my pillow with a sudden thud, eyes closed and cheeks turning red as Knuckles' fur. They all gasped and began tending to me again, this time with great worry. They all didn't know what was causing this sickness at all; even Shadow couldn't figure it out from my last poison attack from Mephiles two years ago.

This was a sure thing, my life was about to go down the drain, unless they did something to help…if they let this disease go any farther into my blood stream…it could be deadly…


	5. Chapter 5

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 5

Scourge in My Side

Shadow and Tails were way too busy keeping that fever of mine down to a reasonable temperature, Sonic keeping up with any supplies that they needed. My breath got harder and a bit short, constantly shouting in pain because it hurt so much. Knuckles just stood outside leaning up against the wall of the house and stared at the ground, wondering if I was okay, but at the same time pondering on what I had said.

"If you wanted to come back for me…why did you wait this long before finally admitting this…Knuckles answer me…" My voice roamed around in his head a few times before fading away. Many thoughts reared around in there as well as the voices that had tried to tell him what to do. Knuckles completely blocked them out for the time being, only to be interrupted by a gasp for help from the city of Hillsborough. He looked toward it and blinked, staying quiet wondering if he should go and help or stay and take care of me.

Next thing he knew was that he was walking around the sidewalks of Hillsborough, where all the cars had been slowed to a stop because of some crime that had happened, street lights somehow on in the daytime and flickering on and off. Knuckles 'hmm'ed to this and walked on, peeking around the corner of the bank from before, looking into the alley beside it where policemen would normally park. He blinked and saw a small kid lying on the ground hurt from something and his eyes narrowed. This didn't look right. A kid in the middle of the parking lot, but with no policemen around or an ambulance to take care of her? Truly a weird scene, but being Knuckles and his gullibility got him to walk around the corner and to lean up against the wall as he stepped quietly toward where the girl was then stopped to peek around the corner again.

It seemed clear, so Knuckles finally ran over to the girl and turned her over to help. She shivered in fear in the sight of Knuckles, but he calmed her down long enough to try and get her to the hospital. What Knuckles didn't know was that some pair of sky blue eyes was watching him from the shadows. The police finally spotted Knuckles with the girl safely on his back and ran up to him. One of them took the girl in his arms as another spoke to him,

"Knuckles the Echidna? It's been two years since you left before…what are you doing back here on earth?" The policemen asked.

"I came back for various reasons. But what happened to that kid?" Knuckles replied with his arms crossed.

"I wish I knew, buddy. But we couldn't get close enough to that kid without any kind of odd attacks coming toward us. Apparently the girl was some kind of bait." The officer said with a concerned look on his face as well as a skeptical look. Knuckles blinked and narrowed his eyes, knowing exactly what the officer was talking about. He knew that when he went to the girl, nothing happened. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then was tapped on the shoulder by a young woman that seemed to be the girl's mother and he turned his head back.

"Excuse me, Mr. Knuckles. I want to thank you for saving my daughter." She smiled down to him with a smile that was similar to mine in his eyes. He blinked; staring for a second then finally turned his head back toward the cars in front of him and nodded,

"Yeah. No problem." He then shook the officer's hand and walked up to a building, which he began to climb up to the roof, staring out at all the cars. His eyes narrowed once again as the policemen got everything under control in less than an hour, and the traffic was moving smoothly once again. Knuckles sighed and crossed his arms as he watched the activity below. A soft wind started to blow, flowing under his dreadlocks and through his white shorts and the black sash.

A few minutes more had passed and Knuckles was on his way back to that old house that I was in. As he passed through the forests, leaping from branch to branch with ease, a short green and black flash zoomed by him, making him almost lose his balance and falling off of a tall broken branch. He caught himself and growled, looking around as to who was trying to knock him down. The green blur was none other than Scourge, his jacket now a bit longer than before, seeming to have changed his appearance to that leather jacket and some black shoes like his old ones, but with two spikes coming out of the back.

"Scourge…what do you want this time?" Knuckles growled and narrowed his eyes again as Scourge turned around to him.

"What? You're not happy to see me? I thought after two years you had changed." Scourge smirked, "Where's your little girlfriend?"

"Why should I tell you, Scourge?" Knuckles growled again.

"I just thought I'd ask. Hmhmhm…she seems pretty sick don't ya think?" Scourge's teeth turned into a slight view of fangs, his smirk growing. Knuckles then knew he was up to something. How did he know about my sickness? And why was he suddenly so confident? Knuckles growled more and jumped at Scourge, throwing a lunge punch at his jaw, but Scourge only moved his head slightly and flicked Knuckles on his cheek, sending him flying into a nearby tree.

"UGH! Gah…why you…" But before Knuckles could say anything else, Scourge had already sent a drill kick right into Knuckles' stomach. Knuckles gagged and spit up a bit of blood, his eyes widening. Scourge smirked and pressed down on his stomach more and Knuckles had finally lost breath and passed out, hitting his side. Scourge laughed and took his foot off, brushing his hands off, not even breaking a sweat.

"Hmph…" He smirked again then walked off, leaving the unconscious Knuckles behind in front of the tree. He lept into the trees again and spotted the old house where I was being held for the moment. Scourge looked to it and blinked, suddenly finding himself thinking.

He only stood there by a few yards, and then found his blue counterpart standing a few feet behind him, smirking and glaring.

"What took ya so long, Scourge? Miss the bus or something?" Sonic said with that smirk of his on his face. Scourge scoffed at this and snickered.

"You honestly think I'm here to hurt that brat? To think that such power can be obtained in one puny yellow echidna like her. Makes me wonder why she's actually here and still in her current state." He was indeed talking about the sickness that was upon me, but Sonic only tilted his head, ears twitched a bit and gritted his teeth.

"What makes you so sure about what power Lauren has?" He wondered, placing his hands in his pockets. Scourge turned again to the house, beginning to walk inside, but was really close to being knocked back by Shadow that had spotted him earlier. He only stopped Shadow with some invisible force and Shadow's arms flailed trying to get free of this control. Scourge smirked again, Sonic closely watching him for any trouble he would cause.

The green blur walked into the bedroom where Tails was still tending to me and stared through his newly dark red colored sunglasses. Tails gasped a bit and stood in front of me to protect, but Scourge did nothing but walk past him and up to the side of the bed. Tails blinked and warned him not to do anything, and Scourge just glanced at Tails, then back to me. My fever had gone down again, but my cheeks were still a slight red color. Scourge 'hmm'ed and lifted the washcloth off of my head, making me cringe a bit to whoever's hands were that cold to touching my forehead.

My eyes opened slightly and I glanced over, my vision getting more clear after every second passing, then I noticed that the green hedgehog that saved me before was standing there, hands in pockets and staring down at me through his sunglasses. I blinked then tried sitting up,

"Sc-Scourge…? What are you doing here…?" I asked as I continued sitting up. He narrowed his eyes and then tapped me on my hand, suddenly making my strength return, cheeks going back to their dark peach color and the heat from my head going away. I had been healed of my sickness…but so easily? How did he do it? My head shook as everyone else's faces lit up to see that I was okay.

"Scourge…how did you-"

"That was no ordinary sickness, kid. You better be happy you're still alive. That was some leftover Chaos energy from that machine. Apparently, when that Egghead made the machine to transform you, he made it for a future plan that has to with you." He said with that low toned voice of his.

When I heard this…my head hung low a bit and I stared at where Scourge was standing. He only turned to the side and glanced at the rest of them, staring at their expressions. How was he able to heal me so quickly? And why did he just stand there and not leave like he usually would? It deeply concerned me, but as I looked around, I noticed that Knuckles wasn't there. When I asked, Scourge just smirked and walked out of the house.

He did something to Knuckles…and I was going to find out what…


	6. Chapter 6

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 6

Scourge's Real Intention

Quickly standing to my feet and following Scourge outside, he had already walked out of the house and back into the forest, heading back to Hillsborough. I sped up my footing and finally caught up to him, then grabbing him by the shoulder, but he just turned around and smacked me across the face. Wincing, I grabbed my cheek and growled a bit, then glared at him.

"You did something to Knuckles, didn't you?!" I shouted stepping up to him again.

"Hmhm…that echidna had no chance fighting me when he stood up. He's the one who threw the first punch, not me. So you might as well think that he's nothing but a pathetic boyfriend." I growled more then raising my fist for a second, but then lowered it back down to my side and stared at the ground. Scourge stared at me for another moment and turned away, frowning and having his sunglasses covering his sky blue eyes.

"He's not pathetic…he's…I…I don't know what he is…if he's serious or not." I looked down to the ground again and shivered. Scourge did nothing but scoff at this and would smirk.

"Cmon kid…face facts. He doesn't want you. He only came back because there was no other place in the universe to obtain more power. Hmhm…face it, Lauren. Knuckles doesn't love you." He smirked as he stared back at me. This only made me a bit angrier. My fists clenched and I glared back up at him, and then moved in a bit. Scourge then just glared and snickered slightly, moving aside from a sudden punch that was thrown at his side, then backflipping onto a tree branch from an arial axe kick and laughed.

"He's not pathetic…he loves me…for who I am. Don't you be going around mocking him for what you think he's really saying!" I shouted again, fists clenched tightly. Scourge then finally jumped down and began walking toward me, my feet backing up from his upcoming rampage, but all he did was back me up to a tree. My back touched the tree trunk and his left arm was placed on the trunk right by my head. I slumped down a bit wondering was he going to attack me right in the gut. Would it be more than that?

Scourge smirked again and spoke,

"Hmhm…like I said. He doesn't love you, Lauren. And you know what…he never…will." Scourge said slowly and so seriously that my eyes widened with a bit of fear and made me become deep in thought, until I opened my mouth again,

"No…N-No…No it's not true I-" But no more words had come out of my mouth. All I felt at the time was the lips of that green hedgehog. He had quickly kissed me, suddenly wrapping his arms around my waist. My eyes blinked and then closed, hesitating, but finally kissed back, feeling something different in his kiss than Knuckles. His kiss was deep, his tongue began to rub against mine and a soft moan came from my mouth as I did the same back to him. My hands raised and were then placed on his shoulders, then up to his cheeks.

Scourge chuckled slightly as he would move his hands up my back and smirk. As we continued that deep kiss, what we didn't know, was that my beloved tough guy, Knuckles had seen this, with eyes covered in a shadow and head hung down slightly. He thought that Scourge would cause big trouble for me, but in this case…he did, but for Knuckles. All he did was turn and walk away back to the house that I was in before, and Scourge smirked, knowing that he was standing there, continuing that kiss.

Somehow, I had fell into Scourge's so called trick and smirked back at him, still kissing the green hedgehog with a bit of delight. His torn gloves began to move down to the front of my body, mainly my stomach, but I grabbed his hand and brought it back up. I broke the kiss and growled at him, a bit of sweat falling down my face.

"Why…did you…do that…?" I continued to growl, grabbing onto Scourge's hand tighter. He slightly grunted, amazed by my strength, but then just smirked, swatting my hand away, about to reach in again. My hand came right back and I smacked him across his face, thus making him get off me and stumbling back. "Hmph…don't…ever…do…that…again…" I growled more, eyes narrowed.

"Hmhmhm…don't tell me you didn't like it, kid." He smirked more, rubbing his cheek from the slap and then placed his sunglasses on top of his head. I was really close to punching him again, but something told me otherwise.

I blinked and suddenly looked toward Hillsborough, completely forgetting that Knuckles was supposedly somewhere out here in the forest, but hearing yet another cry for help that was on downtown near my grandparents' home. Unbelievable to Scourge I could hear this from this far away without having very sensitive hearing like him and Sonic, but he looked there too only with a smirk. I quickly ran off in that direction at a high speed that almost matched Sonic's, but Scourge decided to follow.

Up in the shadows of the trees was Sonic, Shadow, Tails and Knuckles, following us both from behind. Knuckles couldn't get a good enough grip on himself after seeing that little scene between me and Scourge, which got Sonic and Tails worried after he had told them what he saw with his own eyes. They looked to each other and nodded, getting faster in their pursuit against me and Scourge.

As soon as they got close enough, Scourge's ears twitched and he glanced back to see who was following, but they were swiftly pulled away by Shadow's Chaos Control. He said nothing, just continued to follow me into town and down the road where my grandparents' house was. I hid behind one of the trees after running down that rocky driveway and blinked, staring at where the house was, seeing something that made my eyes widen more.

That firey furnace of meteors that looked way too familiar to me was there, my grandparents' home set on fire. Its complete body was covered in nothing but lava and smog, roaring into the depths of space as it was successful at its mission.

"No…this isn't possible…h-how can…it be here?!" I shouted in worry and stared at the monster and then shivered, but all that shivering was nothing but anger. The monster…Iblis…had destroyed my grandparents' home…and there was nothing I could do to make it stop. All I did was charge in and planning to destroy it for myself, but as soon as its body turned to look at me, my feet froze in their tracks. Iblis roared with great velocity and sent out a shockwave that was powerful enough to slice right through me.

My eyes widened in fear and I attempted to run away from the shock, but found myself tripping and falling to the ground, almost ready for my doom once again. Before I could feel anything, that green blur, Scourge had swept me off the ground and dodging the shockwave with his great speed, leaving the premises and away from the monster, Iblis.

There was no stopping this monster for now…but in the end…it will be one hell of a fight…


	7. Chapter 7

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 7

Metal Menace

My eyes closed from feeling a slight pain in my chest as Scourge got me away from the monster, Iblis. His sunglasses covered his eyes and he looked down to me, panting to get away from the scene. Scourge grunted as he then saw that Iblis was beginning to chase after us, and ran faster, his feet leaving behind a cloud of dust and grass from behind him. He panted more, since he was using almost every ounce of his speed to get away with me in his arms. Scourge looked down to me again, then back at Iblis, who was about to launch another attack of firey destruction. Scourge attempted to run faster, but couldn't maintain a good enough speed because he was holding me, and with all that extra weight, he couldn't do anything. He grunted and tried to zig-zag through trees to dodge this attack, but Iblis only roared loudly again, making the ground around it shake like an earthquake, which almost got Scourge to lose his balance, but he quickly caught himself.

"Dammit…what the hell do you think I am?!" Shouted Scourge in anger, but being a giant flamed beast of lava, Iblis did nothing but roar again, making that same shockwave that came toward me. Scourge jumped into a few remaining trees that were from Iblis' rampage and kept leaping until he came to a clearing going back toward Hillsborough.

As Iblis made its slithering way toward us, Scourge grunted stepping back, refusing to set me down even for a second to try and encounter the monster. He growled and stared at the flames of disaster, when we heard a shouting voice as soon as Iblis was about to attack. Scourge blinked and looked around to where it was coming from. At that moment, Iblis froze in its tracks. Scourge blinked and looked closely to the monster and noticed that a few blue glows were flashing where Iblis' chest area was and then 'hmm'ed. Two pieces of metal had been shot into Iblis' chest with a blue aura surrounding them both in the shape of spears.

As the figure jumped down in front of Scourge, he smirked more, hands glowing a bright blue color, bringing up the metals in the earth and forming them into even more spears and chucking them into Iblis' flamed body and freezing it in its tracks for the time being. The blue hedgehog turned around to Scourge and shouted,

"Cmon, get out of here, NOW!" He ran off with Scourge, still with me in his hands and quickly ran through Hillsborough then back to Cedar Grove, heading to where Cedar Grove Fire Department was. All the guys on the department were all gathered around along with Hurdle Mills Fire Department, talking about the recent attack on my dad's shop and my grandma's house. The blue hedgehog slowed down with Scourge and looked to them, smiling, having not seen them in over two years. Scourge began to walk inside the department, but was suddenly stopped by two Cedar Grove guys, C.T. and Steve, until the blue hedgehog spoke up,

"Easy there Finley. That's my daughter there. She needs rest." The blue hedgehog smirked as he walked up to them and their eyes widened, seeing the one and only Chief of Cedar Grove Fire Department.

"F-Frank Berry? We thought you were in that other world…" Said Steve as he let Scourge by inside to the office of the building. Frank, being his casual self just nodded and told them he would explain later, then followed Scourge into the office. As Scourge glanced around the office, Frank walked in and up to me, placing a hand on my forehead as any father would do. His appearance had changed from before as well. Frank was still his navy blue furred self, but with at least three bangs hanging out in front of his face. His quills had the same stripe design as Shadow's, but were orange instead of red. His outfit was resembling the outfit of a biker like Scourge's was: A black shirt with orange flames on the sleeves, a gray belt with a black buckle, a pair of blue jeans and the same old rocket skates he had before. Frank looked to Scourge and noticed the same outlook and blinked,

"So…you a biker too?" He asked.

"Hm? …Hmph. You could say that. I'm just waiting for the brat to wake up." He stood there staring at a map of Cedar Grove all the way to Hillsborough, memorizing every road, his hands placed in his pockets.

"Hey buddy, my daughter's not a brat. And you're in no place to talk." Frank gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes a bit at Scourge then felt my hand move out from under his. He blinked and smiled, glad to have me awake. My eyes fluttered open and I glanced over spotting that familiar navy blue hedgehog right in front of my eyes. I sat up and stared at him for a second, then realized that he was really there.

"D-Dad…" I quickly wrapped my arms around him, holding him close in a tight hug, as he would do the same to me. "Dad…I'm so glad to see you…I missed you so much." I held him close as he would rub my back slowly, trying to shush me.

"I missed you to honey…" He replied holding me close, as if not wanting to let me go again. Frank then looked to me kissing me on my cheek in a fatherly way and I smiled at him, with slight tears coming down my face. He smiled back and wiped those tears away. Scourge 'hmph'ed at this and turned away. I looked to him and narrowed my eyes with great anger.

"Scourge…what are you doing here…" I growled a bit, standing to my feet with my father by my side.

"I'm the one who brought you here, kid. You're father here just saved both our asses from Iblis." He growled back at me, staring through his sunglasses. I narrowed my eyes once again and clenched my fists tightly, but only to have my dad place a hand on my shoulder to calm me down. I did just that and sighed, glancing back to Scourge. All he did was turn and leave the office,

"You let me know when you need your ass kicked again…or if you need another 'lesson'" Scourge smirked and snickered to this and vanished in a flash of light blue light.

"What did he mean by lesson?" My father asked me. I just shook my head and replied with a sigh,

"Nothin dad…it's nothin." I smiled at him and hugged him happily again, leaning my head on his shoulder. He smiled back and held me for another second, then let me go, smiling that fatherly smile.

"Heh…silly Lauren."

"Nu I'm not." I chuckled to my father, glad to hear his silly self again after two years. "So…where's mama?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. After we went to that hedgehog's planet, we just went our separate ways. I don't know." He shrugged as he and I walked out of the station, greeting with the other firemen on the department. I laughed along with most of them until dad asked me something,

"So where's that red boyfriend of yours?" He chuckled, but found that my head was hung down and my attention turned away, then my eyes looked back up to him and blinked,

"I'm not sure where he is…I need to find him." I turned around and was about to run off, when Frank grabbed my shoulder and smiled,

"I'm going with you. No way my daughter is facing against anything like that monster again." He winked playfully and I smiled back at him, then taking off at a high speed past the station and back toward where that old home was.

I was really glad to have my dad back by my side after two years, but what of my mother? If what dad says is true…and everyone else was coming back, I wonder if she was going to show up?


	8. Chapter 8

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 8

An Echidna's Pledge

My father and I quickly made our way back to where my home was, the wind blowing through our quills and dreadlocks, jumping from tree to tree, constantly knocking over old branches that were worn out from the intense cold of the upcoming winter time. And since that winter was almost upon us, which would mean that my own birthday was coming up as well. Of course that would also mean that I was about to turn twenty-one, which in turn made me groan to even hearing that number, because I always loathed that number for some weird reason. My father chuckled to this idea and kept his speed at about supersonic as we lept onward back to the house where Sonic and the others were before.

We both finally landed past a house that belonged to a friend of my father and walked up to that old house. Frank looked to the old house and smiled then glanced at another home that was behind him.

"Man…it's been a long time since I've been around here." He smiled more and put his hands in his pockets as he looked to the old home again.

"So do you know what used to be here in this old thing?" I asked him as we walked inside, but only to see that Sonic and the others were gone for the time.

"This was nothin but an old tobacco barn, honey. Nothin more than that." He looked to me and smiled then looked around it. "And how in the world did you all make it so new?"

"Hehehe…give credit to Sonic on that one, dad. With that speed of his, he was able to completely renovate it all in one second flat." Frank's eyes widened and blinked to this thought and then chuckled again.

"Wow…you guys must be really good friends now aren't ya?"

"Yeah…pretty much. I wonder where they went off to." I thought for a second and then heard a knock on the door. Frank walked to the door and opened it, seeing that very same blue hedgehog with nothing but a worried look on his face.

"Sonic? Is something wrong?" I asked him as he sped up to me.

"Lauren…you gotta come with me…we can't..." Sonic was unbelievably panting with sweat rolling down the side of his face. I held him up as he was close to collapsing but I kept a hold of him trying to get him to calm down.

"Sonic cmon, calm down…what's going on?!" I asked again and Sonic took a breath,

"I-It's the guys…they're all knocked out in that town of yours! They're about to be killed as we speak!" My eyes widened to hearing this and Frank's did as well. I looked to my father and he nodded, and then quickly sped off toward Hillsborough almost at the same speed as Sonic would do. I continued to hold Sonic up until he took my hand and sped off with me following behind Frank toward Hillsborough. Sonic's speed began to slow a bit, which got me worried. I grabbed his hand with my free one and sped ahead of him, going faster than he was previously. He blinked and smirked, speeding up himself to catch up with me.

After another second we finally arrived into Hillsborough. The main intersection beside a few gas stations were all blocked with policemen and fire department trucks and tankers. We saw nothing around the place for the time being, but that was when Sonic pointed onward ahead of the blocking and I followed him there. That was until one of the policemen had blocked my way and not Sonic's. Sonic stopped and looked back explaining that it was me, Lauren the Echidna, the one who saved the planet before, but the man wouldn't listen. He kept me back but I swatted his hand away, which would've been a bad thing, so he grabs my own hand and looked me straight in the eye, but for some reason his glare was so piercing that it made me shake. Out of all the policemen that I've come in contact with, this one was somewhat different.

I quickly shook it off and growled as the policeman gave me my hand back and I finally spoke to him,

"Look pal…I need to get past here. MY FRIENDS ARE OUT THERE!" I shouted with great anger, but the policeman just laughed.

"Face it kid…you're not allowed past here! That's that!" He replied to me with a bit of a smirk. "Kid's like you aren't fit to be around here anyway." I blinked to this and then growled again.

"I don't care what you say, I'm gonna save my friends! And there's NOTHIN you can do to stop me!" I quickly vanished into thin air and appeared on top of a car, as Sonic was standing on it, but he had already gone ahead to fight whatever was causing all this trouble. I glanced back at the officer and he just stared at me from a distance. There was something odd about him, but that didn't stop me. My feet left the ground and I sped off deeper into the city, slightly seeing more and more sparks of what seemed to be flames. I grunted to this, knowing exactly who or what it was. I turned the corner of a street and spotted the very same claws surrounded in those same flames and growled.

Iblis had been destroying my very hometown of Hillsborough, swiftly swiping its claws across the top of buildings and turning them into nothing but rubble. My eyes narrowed and I lept onto a still stable building and my hands began to glow a bright red color. Two orbs of red energy came to my hands and I began to chuck them at Iblis' face, but it only swallowed them up in one gulp, then swiped its claws toward me. I jumped up into the air and attempted that same attack, but it only swallowed them again, even from a closer distance he was unstoppable. As I looked down to that building, Iblis had already destroyed it in the process, so there was no place to land other than Iblis' extended arm. I knew in my head that it was covered in flames that would possibly give me third degree burns, but I didn't have any skill to move myself in the air other than my telekinesis.

I attempted this, but was somehow swept away by a flying piece of metal that was formed into a platform under my feet and carried me away. I blinked looking toward another roof and spotted none other than my father, hands raised high with a light blue aura surrounding them. My smile grew and I jumped off the metal and to where Frank was.

"Thanks for the lift, dad. Any ideas?" Since we were at a good distance away, Frank thought for a second.

"Hmm…alright. You need to find Sonic and the others, I'll hold him off…" He said with a smirk. My eyes widened and I reached my hand out to him.

"Dad you know how dangerous this thing is don't you?! You'll be-"

"Don't argue with me young lady. GO FIND THEM!" I yerked a bit, then nodded, running off to search for my friends. Frank smirked and his hands glowed with an even brighter blue color, bringing up pieces of metal from nearby cars with ease and formed them all into spears as he did before, this time longer and sharper. His smirk grew as he knew that the metals inside those meteoric pieces of Iblis' body were the opposite of the type of metal he was using. He finally threw all those spears at Iblis', causing it to freeze in place and was somehow repelled backward onto a few piles of rubble that was behind it. Those spears then lifted into the air and pierced down into a few of those meteors and Iblis' roared in pain, lying there for another minute or so.

Meanwhile, around most of the alleys of the town, I was shouting the names of my friends, frantically looking around until I spotted Iblis on the ground from the recent attack. I blinked and continued my search, giving me more time. Turning another corner, my eyes widened and I found Sonic who was leaning against the wall of a building that was still intact and ran up to him, then looking to Shadow, Tails, and also Knuckles who were all unconscious on the ground next to each other.

"Sonic…are you alright?" Sonic nodded and sat against the wall, panting heavily. Another worried look came to my face as I looked to Shadow, then Tails, and finally Knuckles, then my eyes drooped. At that moment, the roar of Iblis was heard again and I knew that he was up again, barely fazed by Frank's attack. Frank then jumped onto a round piece of metal that he had brought up, riding away from a sudden attack from Iblis' mouth, a red firey beam that was shot out toward him. Frank knew that from intense flames that the metal he was on would soon melt, but there was no water around to cool this menace down. After a few seconds, a few spikes of red energy were shot into the arm of Iblis and it again roared, looking to where this attack had come from. A voice was then heard around the town and into the heavens…

"You think you're so tough, Iblis? When you endanger my friends…my family…and my planet…YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMIN!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and was spotted high into the air, the heated wind blowing against my hair and dreadlocks, causing a bit of sweat to fall to the ground. My hands began to glow red again, tossing as many of those red orbs as I could at a high speed toward Iblis' body, hoping to slow it down enough for some extra help to come along. Something inside me that someone was about to arrive, a good feeling at that.

This attack wouldn't last forever…and with Iblis' continuous flames spreading everywhere…it was only a matter of time…


	9. Chapter 9

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 9

A Water Droplet's Grace

The flames of disaster had become stronger after the half hour of fighting. Frank was still bringing up metal and shooting as much as he could to slow Iblis down from attacking anymore. I was doing the same but it seems that nothing was harming this monster. We didn't have the right elements on our side. Mine alone was just energy and Frank's was just metal able to be formed into anything as mine would be. Iblis roared again, finally having slowed us down in the process and a giant red orb was forming to his mouth. As I rode on the piece of metal with my father attempting another attack or two, Iblis only stood there swallowing them up like he did before.

"It's no good! Now what?!" I shouted.

"I don't know! We can't give it up here, Lauren. Give your attack everything you have!" Frank shouted back, his bangs falling in front of his green eyes and smirking at me. I blinked and smirked back, bringing as much energy to my hands as I could, as my dad's hands glowed blue once again, forming as many spears as he could into one spear above us. That piece of metal was getting hotter and hotter by the second. I stood to my feet as well as my father and we both combined our attack into one. That giant spear of metal was covered in all that red energy that I fixed up and we both threw our hands forward, chucking it at the very heart of Iblis.

What we didn't know was that Iblis was prepared for this. Its two extended arms rose up and clamped together, stopping the attack in its tracks. My father's eyes and mine both widened to seeing what just happened and we finally fell from the great height after the metal had melted away. Frank grabbed onto my hand and pulled me close, knowing that neither me or him could survive this fall. I grunted and held him close, until the next thing happened.

We had stopped falling, but we had become...wet. Mine and Frank's breath were held as we had fallen into a giant orb of water that slowly moved to the ground and splattered, leaving us landing on our feet and letting our breath out after the water had vanished into thin air. I looked over to Iblis and he as well was beginning to vanish. I squinted to seeing a small figure above Iblis' head pouring a massive amount of water on top of it. That was when I looked toward my father, who was just standing there smirking.

"Well Lauren...looks like she made it after all." He kept that smirk on his face as then we both jumped up onto a building from a sudden attack of flames from Iblis. It roared again loudly in pain as the figure finally spun around and wrapping its entire body with nothing but a giant lasso of water, shining brightly like crystals in an illuminated cave, then squeezing tightly, taking out every last bit of fire that was around Iblis' body. The flames finally died down and Iblis was now nothing but a pile of ash. That same figure had landed on another strand of water that led down to the building that me and Frank were on and then landed softly on her feet.

Sonic was watching the entire thing as well as Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles who had just awoken from their unconsciousness.

This hedgehog was indeed female, light green colored fur with light blue stripes on each quill. Her outlook was that of a summer loving style. Light yellow t-shirt was placed over a white tanktop, her pants nothing but short blue jeans that reached a little above her knees and a pair of light yellow sandals with a blue gem on the sides of them. Upon her forehead was her four long bangs with the same blue stripes, her light blue eyes being covered by them and a small blue gem on her forehead. She had turned around and looked to me and my father with a big smile on her face. My eyes had widened with glee and I stared for a second.

"Hey there, Lauren. Have you been doing okay?" She asked as she usually would and I smiled wide, quickly gripping her in a hug.

"Mama...I'm so glad you made it." I said holding her close. She smiled back at me and then looked to Frank who was just standing there enjoying the scene. She let me go and smiled a bit to Frank and I did as well.

"Good to have you back here, Elaine." That was when Sonic and the others had jumped onto the same roof and were all smiling too see that I was okay. Elaine looked to them and blinked, haven't seeing them in quite sometime either. Shadow stood there with Knuckles as Tails ran up to me, also hugging me happily. I laughed and hugged back, then let go to smile at the others, happy to see that they were okay as well. Shadow nodded to my parents then told them all he would be back later, and left right then in a flash of Chaos Control. I looked to Sonic and he smirked, giving me and my parents a thumbs up for a job well done.

I chuckled and hugged my mother again, then found myself staring into the eyes of my beloved Knuckles. My attention quickly turned away toward my mother again and I sighed, looking at the ground. Knuckles knew he was being ignored by me, but refused to ask if I was okay. It didn't stop Sonic though, he quickly brought up the spirits of all the heroes and smirked.

"Cmon! We need to get things straightened up around here."

"And by we you mean you." Said my dad with a slight snicker.

"Yeah pretty much. Hehehe." Sonic smirked and was then gone in a flash, cleaning up every ounce of ash and rubble that was left behind in the rampage. As he sped around, I looked to my parents and 'hmm'ed. My mother looked to me and blinked.

"Something wrong?"

"Uh...heh. Nah, I'm okay. Just thinking. Why don't we get out of here and let Sonic do his thing. I know he doesn't mind it." I let my mother go and walked off with them all back to Cedar Grove. As I stood next to my parents, wondering where they obtained all that power, they had found out for themselves that they had their own special gifts that were trained under control. That way they would be able to take care of themselves with no problem. They then asked me why I had become an echidna again and of course I explained why, but found myself sighing at the thought of not wanting to be this way...for their sake.

Elaine and Frank glanced at each other and Frank shrugged, Knuckles slowly walking beside Tails and up behind them both. Knuckles was still utterly quiet, until Frank looked back and asked,

"Hey buddy, you okay back there?"

"Hm? ...Yeah. I'm fine." Knuckles replied as they walked down Road 86 and back to that old house.

With my mother's help, we were able to defeat Iblis and stop his rampage. And now that everyone is pretty much here, there was only one thing we could do to keep the peace around the planet. But there's another evil out there somewhere...one that has plagued me before, but has also plagued the universe for quite sometime...


	10. Chapter 10

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 10

The Big 21

An entire month had passed since Iblis' rampage, and my relationship with Knuckles had gotten a bit patched up since that day with me and Scourge. He had completely taken out the memory of Scourge kissing me out of nowhere, misunderstanding what had happened. I was laughing with him as well as everyone else when Sonic was telling another one of his stories back from their planet, Mobius. Knuckles looked to me and smiled that smile again and I found myself blushing slightly, him chuckling to that sight of Sonic acting like a bit of a maniac. Sonic laughed heartily and smirked, scratching under his nose, one fist on his hip with pride. I rolled my eyes at him and he stopped what he was doing and looked at me. My eyes glanced away and I started to laugh at his expression. Sonic blinked and looked around him and noticed that there was nothing funny about what he was just doing, but I pointed out that above his head, and it being so close to Christmas, and everything around the house was decorated already, was a small green piece of leaf being held up on the doorway.

"Watch out Sonic, someone will probably come out of thin air and try to kiss you. Pfft." I started to laugh out loud along with Knuckles, Frank sitting on the couch and laughing too, smoking which what looked like a cigarette. Elaine was busy in the kitchen preparing for the special day that was about to come around the corner in half an hour. Yes, it was late that night. Eleven-thirty. Everyone was awake and having a good time, Tails lying back on the couch laughing as he thought of Sonic's little girlfriend that would want to come and kiss him under the mistletoe.

Knuckles' arm was wrapped around my shoulder as we both sat on another couch that was next to the one where my father and Tails were sitting and I was somewhat curled up on the couch next to him, leaning my head on his shoulder. This really made my father smile, finally finishing his cigarette and walking outside to put it out. My eyes shifted over to him and smirked,

"Alright, dad. No more of those for the next week." I laughed, knowing that every time I told him not to smoke, he would just mess with me,

"Ah shut up." He ruffled through my hair as he walked by and I laughed, trying to fix it.

"Heeey. Not cool." I chuckled again as I finally fixed my hair. Knuckles laughed at this as well and I glanced up at him with eyes slightly narrowed and he blinked, with a drop of sweat falling down his face with embarrassment. He scratched his nose and kept chuckling. Looking around the room, I noticed that Sonic and Frank had struck up a conversation then made their way to the den where there was a small table in the middle. Frank smirked and held up a deck of cards, challenging Sonic to a game of Texas Hold Em. Sonic smirked as well and rubbed his hands together, having played this game before against Shadow, he had a pretty good shot, but had no idea how good my father was.

I smiled up at Knuckles and he got up, taking my hand and walking outside with me. I held his hand softly and felt…warm inside after all that had happened, I felt safe just holding his hand. As we walked down a small path in the woods, Knuckles looked to me and smiled, laying a soft kiss on my cheek. I blushed a bit and smiled back at him, walking close beside him.

"…Ya know Lauren…" Knuckles began.

"Yeah?" I looked at him and smiled.

"Hard to believe it's been two years…seems like longer than that. You turning twenty-one…" I rolled my eyes at this with a smile.

"Yeah yeah…me turning 'the big twenty one'. Bleh." Knuckles chuckled to this and stopped, looking up at the night sky, stars filling it and the crescent shaped moon shining brightly down onto the leaf-less trees.

December fourteenth…the day before my own birthday. I couldn't wait to get another year older, but it also bugged me that it was the number twenty-one. I don't know what it was that bothered me about that number, but I guess it's just a thing for me and possibly a few other people. Knuckles didn't mind aging; he just wanted to find that way of finding out where I was those past two years. I looked at him and smiled again also shifting up to the sky. Knuckles then looked back to the ground and thought for a sec.

"Hey Lauren…"

"Hm?" My attention then turned to him and that same smile was on his face and he looked into my eyes, holding one of my hands.

"Hehe…I think it's time I gave you your present early. Do you want it?" He asked me.

"Yeah. Sure." I nodded and smiled at him widely, waiting as he pulled something out of his shorts pocket. I blinked and he held his hand to mine and placed something inside of it. I opened my hand and noticed a small charm necklace, almost like a choker, but with a black strap that was unable to be broken. The charm at the end was perfectly carved exactly like a red Chaos Emerald, shining brightly with the moon's light, and carved into the charm was indeed my first and last name, Lauren Berry. My eyes widened to see its beauty and my smile grew wide, then looking to Knuckles, eyes shimmering with glee. He smiled back at me and took it, walking behind me and clipping it around my neck and then placed his hands on my shoulders as I looked at it again.

"Knuckles…its perfect. I love it, thank you." I quickly hugged him and held him close. He smiled and hugged back then spoke again,

"I have one more gift for you. But you'll hafta wait until the party's over. Cuz it's five minutes away from the day." I nodded and ran ahead of him, him laughing as he chased me back to the house. It was then one minute before December 15th. Knuckles and I walked up to the house and opened the door as soon as the minute had passed. Knuckles had his hands covering my eyes as he guided me inside the house and noticed that the lights were off. He removed his hands and the lights went on in a flash, everyone jumping from their desired hiding spot and all with smiles, shouted out,

"Happy Birthday, Lauren!!!" They all cheered as I was now the big twenty-one years old in this world. Frank came up and hugged me tightly, smiling.

"Happy Birthday, honey."

"Thanks dad." I smiled again.

Tails came up to me and hugged me happily also telling me happy birthday and I thanked them all. Sonic came up and wrapped an arm around my head and winked at me, showing me that Elaine was then coming in with a small cake that she had made especially for me, but enough for everyone to have at least one or two pieces. It was my favorite kind of cake as well, chocolate, with nothing but white icing and in the middle was a photo placed of me and the whole Sonic crew when I first met them. I smiled to this and saw just two candles on it that had the shapes of the numbers 2 and 1. Again, I chuckled, finally making a small wish and blowing out the candles, then everyone clapping for me as my mother started taking off the candles and cutting everyone a piece. After all of us had a piece of the cake, they began commenting on my mother's cooking saying it was the best they've ever had.

She at first denied it saying it was like any other cake, but making it from scratch was a big deal for me and the others. I was surprised that she had done it so well over the past twenty-one years of my life. Sonic was then done with his cake and went for seconds with a small snicker. Elaine smiled at this and wondered if I wanted seconds, but I refused, not really needing any sugar this late at night. She came up to me and took mine and Knuckles' plates, him also not wanting to eat another piece, but thanked her for asking. Tails thought it was so delicious he actually got a second piece as well with a big smile on his face. My dad chuckled and messed around with Tails until Sonic challenged him to another game of Texas Hold Em and my dad smirked again.

"What. Do you WANT to get beat again?" He laughed walking into the den again.

"Hey! You know good and well I had a good hand when we started!"

"Yeah then it got trashed." He laughed again. Sonic huffed and played the game once again with my dad, still having no hope of winning. Knuckles got up once again and urged me to come outside and to the small barn that was below the house we were in. I nodded to him and followed, we both walked in and looked around in awe of how old it was, but still was intact. He then looked to me and smiled,

"So…you want that other gift now?" He moved his hand slightly through my hair and I blushed a bit, smiling.

"Heh…sure." I nodded again.

As he moved closer, I felt butterflies fluttering around in my stomach as he got close, my blush turning a bit redder than before. Knuckles lips finally met with mine and his hands wrapped around my waist, kissing me deeply. This was his other gift? So suddenly he kissed me, and moving his boxing glove covered hands up my back slowly, holding me close as he kissed. My eyes closed and I finally began kissing him back, my hands raised up to his shoulders, then wrapping around his neck. One of my hands moved up to the back of his head and brought him closer. Both our bodies touched and we still kissed passionately and for another few seconds.

He finally broke the kiss after those few seconds and smiled at me, his nose touching against mine. I blushed again and smiled more, holding him close,

"Happy Birthday Lauren…I love you." He smiled that tough guy smile.

"I love you too Knuckles…" My smile grew more and the rested my head on his shoulder, my right hand resting on his chest.

This indeed was a night to remember in my head…and maybe it wasn't so bad after everything that happened. Everything was back to normal…but for the time being…


	11. Chapter 11

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 11

Elemental Surprise

It was now two days after my birthday, December 17th, Knuckles and I were still in bed asleep waiting the moment for us to wake up. Yes, we did sleep in the same bed while everyone else slept in their own bed. Sonic had taken his bed to a branch on a nearby tree branch as he normally would, Frank had taken the recliner to himself and letting it lean back, Elaine having the couch to herself along with Tails curled up on the end, which was comfortable for him with those two tails of his keeping him warm.

The sun had finally risen up into the sky after a few more hours and I had woken up second to last from everyone else. Knuckles was still in his state of slumber while everyone else was up and stretching, getting ready for the day ahead of them. I smiled as I sat up looking to him, then placing a hand on his cheek and his eyes began to flutter open. He looked up to me and smiled as well then sat up kissing me on my cheek.

"Sleep well?" I asked him. He nodded and smiled more, staring into my eyes about to kiss me again, when a familiar face was hanging upside down from the nearby window.

"You two aren't gonna go at it again are you?" A skeptical face appeared across Sonic's face and he began to laugh. My face turned completely red and I glared at the window, but Sonic was already gone. I groaned and my face was still red. Knuckles chuckled at me and smiled, patting me on my shoulder and getting up from the bed. I looked to him and then got up myself, stretching out my arms. I slipped on my hoodie for the cold day, and then looked to Knuckles as he was actually putting on a black jacket just to keep himself warm. It was going to be freezing outside today to everyone got on some warm clothes to keep them from freezing their tails off. Knuckles and I then walked outside with everyone else looking up at the morning sky of winter.

"Ohh man. I'm so glad its winter." I stretched again and smiled wide feeling the soft but cold wind against my dreadlocks. Knuckles stood by me and nodded to me then looked to my mother who was just peeking out the window. I laughed a bit and peeked back in the door.

"Cmon, mama. I know you hate the cold, but seriously. You got fur it ain't gonna hurt you." I laughed again. She stuck her tongue out at me playfully.

"Nyah." And I did the same back to her like we usually would play around with each other, laughing. Frank smiled at this and rolled his eyes, talking with Sonic about some random guy things. I was glad that dad had someone he could talk to without them turning their back on him after just a few weeks from something that happened.

A few minutes had only passed until I stopped in my tracks. Everyone else had carried on with their conversations but me…I had felt some strange energy in the distance. My only option at that moment was to get everyone out of that premises. I turned to them,

"Everyone! We need to move, NOW!" The second everyone heard this they spotted a dark mass of clouds making their way toward us. They quickly jumped onto the roof of the house then backed away from what was coming. My eyes quickly widened as I looked closer to it. The mass was a dark green ball of fur, eyes darkened to the point of them having slits in them, but this time with a light green poisonous color tint to them. The body was slumped over forward and that same aura of darkness was surrounding it. Right then I noticed who it was, but I blinked again to realizing the power that was infused in him.

"Isn't that the hedgehog that I met before with that fire monster?" My dad asked as he stepped back.

"Yeah dad…that's Scourge…but there's something else to him…" My eyes widened more, "Mephiles has taken him over!!" I shouted. Everyone else's eyes widened as well. How could Mephiles be back after that attack from me and Knuckles two years ago? If he was back, but only as a spirit, fate could only tell what he had in store for us all by taking control of Scourge's body. Scourge's teeth had already grown into fangs as they were before, but with a hint of that same poison that had almost killed me before. As Scourge got closer, I stepped back even more; shivering to the fact of all that dark energy was seeping around me.

"Hmhmhm...well well well...look what we have here..." Scourge smirked widely, making his teeth glow a bit with a poisonous aura and stared me in the eyes. My eyes were clearly shaking in fear, unable to feel anything in my entire body, which gave Mephiles the opportunity to fire his next attack, since he already struck a nerve in me. His hand raised and an average sized orb of purple and dark pink aura had formed into his palm. Next thing we knew, a big enough explosion was made from that small orb, knocking us all back onto several things: Loose rocks, trees, the house behind us and the ground.

Scourge laughed at the sight and rose his hands to the air, creating more and more explosions from all around, fazing each and every one of us from side to side, unable to defend even for a second. Even though my parents were tough fighters at the top of their shape, they were still always older than we were, not being able to react as much as we could, thus making them both collapse to the ground to their knees. I growled as I was just thrown down onto my back then looked up, wincing to see that my parents were having a hard time. My stance got a bit more serious and I began to glare.

"Alright...prepare yourself..." My hands rose up in front of my body and they began to glow a bright yellow this time. My eyes blinked as I saw a small amount of electricity surrounding my fists. I knew that sooner or later I would be honing a power that had to do with the elements. At least...that's what I was told by Shadow. My confused frown turned into a smirk and I charged forward at Scourge at a high speed. My hands were sparking violently with electricity and then I threw them at his face, tossing a few shocks of lightning with great speed. Scourge did nothing but smirk, knocking away the bolts and backhanding me across my cheek and onto the ground.

I wasn't stopping there. I threw my feet upward and got back up, then launching myself at Scourge's throat, but found myself being caught by my own throat by his hand. Gagging could be heard from my mouth, but I was quickly released after a very swift punch from Sonic, who had sped up at the right time. That was followed by Knuckles landing a solid but powerful lunging punch across Scourge's face, making him skid back, but still with a smirk on his face. The real Scourge was in there somewhere...and the least I could do was to free him from Mephiles' wrath.

I charged at a high speed again, surrounding my hands with electricity and throwing another punch on Scourge's face, shocking him and making him stumble back. I panted and kept punching over and over, each punch more powerful than the last. Scourge yerked to each punch and was stepping back further and further until finally I slammed him to the ground with more force than before. Mephiles' voice was once again heard in all of our heads as he spoke,

"Hmhmhm...you cannot defeat a spirit, you weaklings...Solaris will be revived...and there will be nothing...you can do about it!!!" Scourge's body glowed a bright purple color that made us cover our eyes from being blind. A bright aura had come off of Scourge, then suddenly forming into that very head of Mephiles himself. My eyes widened a bit to see such horror in front of me, but Mephiles had lunged himself at me at a very high speed, hoping to take control of my own body. Knuckles and the others shouted no in attempt to divert Mephiles' course, but Mephiles only made it by a few inches. That is until a flash of fur had gone by me, knocking the spirit to the ground. I blinked and looked to the character, but noticed this one hasn't been to my world ever since Knuckles and the others did.

The figure had rid of Mephiles for the time being, he having disappeared into the ground with no trace left of him around us, and then turned around to see me. His eyes narrowed a bit and he stared at me in the eyes, as everyone else's eyes widened to see who was standing there in nothing but a pair of black pants and a white robe to cover his shoulders and the rest of his body. His sun colored yellow eyes were very familiar to mine.

"So...you're the one who brought the wrath of Iblis and Solaris into this world huh...?"


	12. Chapter 12

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 12

A Misunderstanding

It was none other than Silver the Hedgehog, warrior from the distant future, and master of the power of telekinesis. The hedgehog looked to me for a second then back to Scourge, who was lying unconscious on the ground before them. As Knuckles and Sonic aided my parents, I looked to Scourge and walked over to him, kneeling down on one knee. I heard a grunt from him as well as a few coughs, holding a hand up to his throat and turning over on his side, attempting to stand up. My hand reached for him, grabbing onto his arm, then his other to help him to his feet. Scourge had reached into his jacket to pull out his sunglasses, but nothing was there. Seeing him without those shades was indeed different, but he narrowed his eyes and looked up at me, seeing that I was helping him.

I held him up as he grunted, then he pulled away slightly. Refusing to let him stay on his own two feet, I reached for him again, but he growled and knocked my hands away.

"Gah...I don't...need your help...d-dammit..." He collapsed once again from the sudden weakness in his legs and I caught him with one quick motion. Scourge panted and coughed again, me not knowing what was going on. I realized he was a bit weak from being controlled like that but as I thought, my eyes then widened to finally realize what was wrong with him.

"Dammit...he's been poisoned by Mephiles!" I helped him up a bit until he was sitting down on the ground in front of me, and I began to take out a few items that were in the house behind us. Before I could do anything to help Scourge in destroying the poison inside him, I felt a hand grab the hood of my shirt and throw me back onto the ground with a bit of force. My legs were thrown up a bit then landed back onto the ground. I raised my head up to say a few words for the one who would dare try to stop me from helping someone, but that individual's hand was now in my face, the rouded symbol imprinted on it glowing a light green color. That same hand barely touched my forehead, before I found myself crashing into a boulder that was nearby.

"GAH! Ungh...w-what the...Silver!? What is your problem!?" I shouted in anger getting back onto my feet and rubbing my face from the pain. He snorted and glared at me with great anger, stepping toward me in slow motioned steps.

"You are in no place to speak. I have my mission to destroy the trigger that brought that monster to yet another world!" His hands glown a bright light green again about to attack, that is until Sonic and Frank had grabbed a hold of his arms, holding him back.

"Grr...get off me!" Silver shouted. The same aura surrounded his entire body and he blew both Sonic and Frank off of him and back onto the ground next to Scourge. As Scourge was still shivering from the poison slowly seeping around the vessells of his body, my eyes were suddenly narrowed, glaring at Silver to get him to stop. I then found myself grabbing Silver's hand and flipping him over my head and slamming him onto the grass covered ground, then stomping my foot onto his stomach. He gagged and grabbed onto my leg, blowing me off with more of his telekinetic power, throwing me into a tree trunk.

As I grunted, getting back up onto my feet, Silver was already in a fist to fist combat with Knuckles, hoping to back him off from me. Knuckles growled, missing each of his punches and dodging all of Silver's. I winced a bit then opened both my eyes, them suddenly glowing a bright green.

"That...is...ENOUGH!" My hands were glowing with what seemed like the same aura that Silver had in his own body. Everyone turned their attention to me, including Silver, who was suddenly astounded by what power I had acquired. My own telekinesis had kicked in, but this time with the same kind of power related to Silver kind. I lifted him up in the air with it and growled,

"You think I'm just gonna sit here and watch that hedgehog DIE!? I have my own purposes for this planet, and letting it become nothing but a rock floating in space is not an OPTION!" I moved my hand to my left and Silver had gone flying into a tree with so much force that it almost snapped in half, which it did, and was about to fall on top of Silver, when it was suddenly stopped in place.

Silver blinked and grunted, looking up to see that the tree trunk had been frozen in place then tossed aside from crushing him underneath it. I made my way toward Scourge and reached my hand up to his throat, taking out all of the poison before it had gotten too serious. I then snapped and Scourge's old pair of shades had appeared in my hand. My eyes went back to their normal dark green color and I handed the shades to him, with nothing but a smile.

"I believe these are yours."

Scourge took them and blinked, then smirking while placing them over his eyes.

"As much as I hate sayin it...thanks kid, you really saved my ass." He smirked and would shake my hand with a firm grip, me doing the same back to him. Silver saw this and got to his feet, making his way toward us all. I looked to him and my hands were placed on my hips, turning to him.

"So...have any other accusations?" I raised my hand, showing him and everyone else that there was a similar mark on my palm that matched the one on Silver's, same aura same everything. Silver's eyes blinked and his expression turned into a somewhat nice one. A smile appeared on his face.

"Alright fine...look. I'm sorry I accused you without thinking. It's just been a stressful time." Silver reached out to my hand and shook it, still with that smile.

"Eh...I know how ya feel, Silver. But ya know what? It's nice to meet such a powerful hedgehog from the future." I smiled back, shaking his hand.

"And it's nice to meet an echidna such as yourself. You really are a legend back in my world."

"Hehe...guess so." I chuckled and scratched the back of my head in embarrassment, as well as everyone else's frowns turned to smiles.

If this was what it was like to have the power of such a hedgehog as Silver...then maybe things would be easier after all.

But this wasn't over...a bigger evil was still awaiting us in the near future...


	13. Chapter 13

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 13

Mephiles' Plan

After a few hours of explaining what had happened to Silver, he finally realized what was going to happen with Mephiles and what he wanted to do to me. Silver's expression turned into a serious one as we all sat inside that white barn gathered around each other. My father was having a harder time staying awake for the time, since he was indeed getting a bit older, but he knew that he had to stay strong for me, as I sat beside him, comforting him as Silver spoke about his own past with Mephiles and what he was capable of. I already knew what Mephiles could do, since my past experience with him was nothing but a bad one, so I just let him explain it to everyone else who didn't know. Knuckles was the first to stand to try and reason as to why Mephiles would want to get a hold of my body.

"If Mephiles was raring to get Lauren, wouldn't he have done it by now?"

"It's not that simple, Knuckles." Silver interrupted. "Mephiles is a deep planner. He would do whatever it takes to get what he wants. He would even go back in time to altar a future that would be decent enough for himself...even if it means endangering the future of his victims. He doesn't care about what happens to others, he only cares about power." Silver stared at me in the eyes and blinked. My expression was nothing but serious, but also a confident look.

"Hehehe...if he wants me, he'll hafta kill me to get what he wants." A smirk was on my face and Frank looked to me with a bit of worry.

"Hey don't be sayin anything about him killing you...he'll have to deal with me if he tries anything to my daughter." He smiled to me. I smiled back and put a hand on his and he held it like any father would, then looked to Knuckles and nodded. Knuckles nodded back.

"Alright then...then it's settled. We'll give everything we got to bring down Mephiles and ruin his plan!" Knuckles threw his fist up in the air as well as everyone else, shouting in joy to becoming so confident.

That was...until we heard a very familiar laughing coming from outside. My eyes narrowed to hearing it and I was the first to look out the window of the barn. That laughing had belonged to none other than that spirit of a head, Mephiles. But this time, he had reshaped just his head, to form his entire body, but it was still spirit-like. I quickly ran outside and stood at least about twenty yards from him, my eyes narrowed more.

"What is it that you really want Mephy. Come to try and take over my body?" I smirked, knowing I was still confident in my battling.

"Hmhmhmhm...oh I do have needs for your form, Lauren Berry...but all in good time will I initiate my real plan..." His arms were slumped over in front of him as well as his spirited body, stepping his way toward me at a slow pace. I only stood there with my arms by my side awaiting whatever trick he was going to do, but he only stepped a foot in front of me, his green eyes slowly shifting over to mine. My eyes were still narrowed as I stared into those piercing eyes of his and smirked.

"Just try anything...I know for a fact that good always triumphs over evil. You just haven't learned your lesson." I clenched my fist and threw it over top of his head, which had turned into a mist and then reformed back into his spines and icy blue stripes. Mephiles chuckled and looked at me again, stepping back a few feet.

"You do not know what I have in store...the real power of Solaris will be restored! Hmhmhm...hehehehehe..AHAHAHA!" As his laugh grew, I just spit to my left and frowned, but with much anger. Knuckles came up to my side and glared at Mephiles, but the spirit just faded away with the dust in the wind around us.

If what Silver said was true, then whatever Mephiles' plan was...it wasn't going to be good...


	14. Chapter 14

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 14

Loss of a Hero

A few days had passed after that last encounter with Mephiles, and I was starting to worry as to when, where, and what he was going to do to us all. I stood outside in front of the barn gritting my teeth and nibbling on the edge of my glove with great nerve. Some strange feeling was at the bottom of my stomach, but I had already known how nervous I was as to figuring out what Mephiles' plan was. I began to think, but suddenly another thought came to my mind. It had been at least a week after Knuckles and I decided on something, and I think it was time to tell him what the results were. I never knew it would come to it, but at least I know he would probably be happy as to what I would tell him.

Since he, Sonic, Silver, Tails, and Frank were all off keeping control of the cities and being cautious over what was to come, my mother was the only one left that was there in the house. I might as well tell her. After all, she's my mother, and I'm sure she'd be happy about it. I walked back into the house that we were all staying in, then holding the door open to see my mother laying on the couch asleep with a blanket over top of her. I smiled and just let her be for now, but went back outside to take a walk. Knowing my mother, she could handle herself when alone. With her power she could knock down an entire army like what she did with Iblis. I rolled my eyes at the thought and smiled, keeping my slow pace through the forest near that house.

As I remembered, the trees around my town were slowly being chopped down, one by one. I thought it was for a good cause, but as the economy is down...okay WAY down, I figured they would've done something about it. Sadly, they never cared about the enviornment, they just want to make money off of how many trees they cut down. I glanced around and then stopped, hearing a slight sound of gun shots that seemed to come from a small market store down the road from the house. I sped up my walking, then turned it to running on to that store, hiding behind a thick tree trunk. I peeked around the corner and noticed that my father was standing there in front of the store holding a shotgun he had bought many years ago. I wondered what was going on, but also wondered why he wasn't using any of his own power.

"...Of course..." I thought to myself. There was no sign of metal around, and any of the metal that was in the ground was so softened that he couldn't use any of his power, so he was just as vulnerable as anyone else would be in a robbery of a store. Frank stood there holding the shotgun in his hands with perfect aim, about to shoot.

"I'll give you one last chance! Come out with your hands up and I won't have to come in there!" At that very moment, somehow I didn't realize what was going on behind me, and one of the thugs in that robbery had somehow escaped and snuck up behind me. The thug had wrapped his arm around me and held tightly, almost choking me to death. His other hand had raised up to my throat, it weilding a very sharp knife that was big enough for a policemen's job, even bigger than a pocket knife. My eyes widened and I gagged trying to get him off, but he held that knife tighter and closer to my throat. Frank's blue furred ears twitched to hearing the grunting from me and glanced to his left, seeing that I had struggled enough to get into his sight. His eyes widened and he began to growl.

"LAUREN! YOU BASTARD LET GO OF HER!" But as he didn't think to keep an eye on the thug inside the store, he turned and was about to try and shoot the other thug in the leg with a quick pistol he pulled out, but as soon as he layed a hand on it, another gun shot was heard. Frank's ears were perked up and everyone stopped. The thug that had me kept his grip and I froze in my place to what I was about to see.

In the midst of the moonlight, a sudden thud was heard from inbetween the store and where I was standing. The knees of the navy blue hedgehog had hit the ground, followed by his entire body hitting the gravel around him, a small blotch of blood was seen coming through his shirt and was getting onto the ground. My eyes widened more and I took the knife from the thug that had grasped me, then stabbed it into his stomach to get him off then stood there staring at the one thought that would haunt me for the rest of my life. My mouth was gaped open slightly and I finally spoke,

"...No...n-no...no no no...FATHER!!!" At the top of my lungs I had shouted at this sighting. Looking up into the sky as my voice was heard, the injured thug and the one that was inside the store had come out to try and finish me off. I did nothing but stand there staring into the heavens, but found myself looking back down to them both with eyes narrowed as much as they could, and fists clenched tightly. They both were fools to charge at me with guns ablazing and knives slashing, but then realized that the next very second, a knife was stabbed into the heart of the injured thug, and a gunshot wound was found also in the heart of the other thug.

With so much anger I grabbed both of the bodies and flung them into the road, hoping some car or something would come and run over their dead bodies. My eyes quickly shifted back to the body that was lying on the gravel on the ground. I ran over to it and kneeled down, sudden tears rolling down my cheeks like a stream.

"D-Dad...Dad...wake up...please...?" I budged his body but there was no response. That bullet came from a shotgun as well, but with more power, and the fact that it was right through where his heart was supposed to be. My eyes were as wide as they could be, crying over the death of my own father. I cried loudly until I was spotted by those two hedgehogs, the fox, and the echidna I love standing there with eyes also wide at the sight of my father's body and me hovering over it seeing tears falling onto the hand of the metal weilding hedgehog. Knuckles had ran over to me to grip me in a tight hug, but I was, as any other girl would do of losing their father, try to keep him away and getting back to my father.

"Lauren, there's nothing you can do! You have to let it go!" Knuckles shouted trying to pull me away from Frank.

"NO! THERE HAS TO BE A WAY TO KEEP HIM ALIVE!!" I shouted with everything I had to get Knuckles away, but then found myself turning to him and grasping him in a hug, crying on his shoulder and shaking like mad. Knuckles held me close and rocked me a bit to try and calm me down but I continued to sob loudly, crying out the name of the closest relative to me.

"Dad...why did..he leave me...daddy...why...why?!" I sobbed more and held onto Knuckles more, hoping to find comfort, but found nothing. Silver, Sonic, and Tails hung their heads down in sadness, grieving over the loss of a good hero, friend, and father.

I continued to mutter my dad's name over and over, while Knuckles held me as close as he could.

This was indeed the loss of a hero...the Metal Knight of Mobius...Frank the Hedgehog...will always be remembered...


	15. Chapter 15

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 15

Revenge for the Fallen

I couldn't believe that I had lost my father. The sky was darkened to a point where you would think that there would be a storm coming. All the fire departments were gathering around the casket that held my father in his hedgehog form. A forty-nine year old man getting killed by a simple gunshot was the lowest way that you could go in death. The firemen gathered around more and took the casket over and placed it over the holdster that was above the ground. Many chairs were lined up in a row, enabling the family and friends would be able to sit. I sat with my mother in the front row, wearing nothing but a pair of black dress pants, along with a black dress shirt with black rings around my wrists. My mother was wearing a long dark green dress, still crying her eyes out from losing her husband.

My head hung down, my eyes halfway closed staring at the ground in front of me. As I kept my posture, one of the firemen, Steve Finley from before had stepped forward. I kept my eyes at the ground as I listened to him.

"We all are here...grieving the death of a very wonderful and honorable man...one who kept us all straight when we were getting into trouble. He was...also a wonderful father to this young girl, and also a great husband to this woman. Despite what they have been through, he knew where he was going when he died...so we all know where he is right now." Steve continued to speak and my eyes were slowly welling up with tears, most of them hitting the ground in front of me, but showing no signs of sobbing. My mother wrapped an arm around my shoulders and I just looked down more.

"Lauren...are you alright...?" She asked me.

"..." I said nothing, but just nodded my head, still feeling tears falling down my face and to the cold hard ground. Knuckles, Sonic, Silver, Tails, and now Shadow were sitting in most of the seats behind us, realizing that most of my family was sitting behind them. My uncle, a somewhat big boned man was walking up with his wife, Cindy, and her two sisters, Vicky and Missy. My Uncle, John was holding an acoustic guitar in his hands and began to play a song. Missy, Cindy and Vicky were all very good singers in my family, but my mother never wanted to sing with them because she never wanted to. The lyrics were very familiar to me as they began to sing it, slowly feeling more tears fall down my face, my hair covering my eyes in a shadow.

(1)

My mother was already crying beside me, while Knuckles scooted his chair up behind me, placing his hand on my back, rubbing it softly to try to calm me down. The song had slowly, but finally came to an end, and everyone was quiet. As a usual ritual would go for a Fire Chief to die, they would usually have guns going off into the sky for his honor, but at one point in my father's life, he requested they not do that for mine and my mother's sake. A normal funeral was requested from him, but he did promise one thing: One of the other firemen, Malcolm, had walked up to me with an object in his hands. I slowly looked up to him, tears having dried up from my eyes and I noticed the one thing that made me start feeling those tears again.

It was a flag...an American flag that was folded up into a triangle shape. Malcolm kneeled down and handed me the flag, placing it in my hands and I grabbed onto it with a good grip.

"Lauren...your father was a great man. Will you take care of this flag for him?" Malcolm patted me on my hand, avoiding the spikes on them and I nodded slowly, still feeling tears rolling down my cheeks.

"...Yes..." I nodded a few more times and held the flag close, realizing it was the only thing I had left of my father, that was, until Malcolm handed me something else. This time, it was a metal guantlet that had recently been around my father's wrist.

"He wanted you to have this as well...this gave him his power for controlling metal...he told me to give it to you when he died..." He placed it around my wrist and I blinked, looking at it closely. It was indeed made of the purest metal, but placed in the middle of it was an orange jewel. My mother looked to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"That's the Harley Emerald...that's...what Frank used to control metal...it's yours now Lauren..." She said. My eyes were still wide to see it and they still cried tears for another few seconds. I looked to my father's casket and got up, walking over to it and looking over into the inside where I saw my father's body. I began to speak softly,

"I promise you daddy...I will...get revenge for you...by defeating Mephiles for sure...and if anyone gets in my way...I'll be sure to destroy them..."

This promise was vital for me...if I was to succeed, I would have to find a way to send Mephiles to another dimension...where he would NEVER...return...


	16. Chapter 16

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 16

The Beginning

Three days had past since my father's death. So many questions were roaming around in my head for so long. Why did my father have to die now? What am I going to do about Mephiles when he comes and I have no one to back me up? What of my mother...how can she go on after this tragedy. As if the divorce wasn't bad enough...now her own husband has died and the only thing she has left is...me. It was definitely a hard time for me and her, but also very hard for Knuckles and the others to get me to let this all go and move on. It was too hard for me to do it, though. My father was my best friend and my favorite dad on earth. I began to think to myself...what was the reason I even became an anthropomorphic echidna. One who had the ability to talk like a human and ability to endure much pain. I never knew it would come to this. I made my way past the graveyard where my father was buried, glancing to where his gravestone was as I passed it. My head returned to where I was going and my mouth let out a sigh, keeping my pace of walking, my arms crossed as if hugging myself. I shivered from the winds of the night, but kept walking.

"Is this your plan Mephiles...? To kill of my family...and my friends...just to get what you want...? If that's the case...why don't you just finish me off...I know for a fact that you're powerful...Sonic and the others have beaten you before...and I'm sure they could handle you without my help..." I stopped in my tracks after hearing a faint voice on the wind around me.

"No daughter of mine is going to speak that way..." The voice was so familiar. My eyes widened and I looked around frantically trying to find where the source of the sound was.

"D-Dad? Is...Is that you? Where are you!"

"I'm right here Lauren...close your eyes and listen." I did just that and suddenly held onto where my heart is. I gasped a bit, feeling a bit of a jolt. But that jolt was no normal one. It was dark. A dark bolt of lightning had been shot into my back, but I had barely flinched. My attention turned back behind me and I saw none other than Scourge the Hedgehog standing with his hand toward me, his light blue eyes hiding behind those red shades.

"You're one to talk, kid. Don't even think about doing anything to yourself that has to do with death. You're own father just told you...am I correct?" He smirked with those same fanged teeth gleaming in the nightlight. My eyes narrowed and I turned around.

"How did you-"

"Know what just happened? Hmhm...I have my ways, kid. Now then...if you want to defeat Mephiles, you need to toughen up. You're not just the same kid that I saved from that cliff before...are you?"

"...No I'm not, Scourge. And why are you telling me this...you don't care!" I shouted as I stepped toward him.

"Ahh...I may have not cared before, but anyone who even thinks about taking over anyone else's body is a sure-fire freak. And Mephiles has reigned long enough in my world." My eyes blinked and a skeptical look appeared on my face.

"Your world? You mean the Anti-Mobius?"

"That's right. Mephiles took over MY planet...MY KINGDOM! HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO EVEN LIVE AS A SPIRIT!" Scourge shouted. I had no idea that Mephiles had complete control of Moebius. It shook me a bit and I shook it off, looking to Scourge with my eyes narrowed. If I was to defeat Mephiles, I had to become stronger. Strong enough to become invulnerable to his control. If Mephiles got control of my body, there was no telling what would happen to my planet. The only question remained was...why didn't Mephiles take over Mobius? Sonic's planet? I thought for another second, but minutes later we were back at the home in Cedar Grove.

"He did..." Said Knuckles with a sigh.

"He what?! Why didn't you tell me this?!" I shouted with anger as I stared Knuckles in the eyes as we stood in our bedroom. With everyone else gone out patrolling the city again, Knuckles placed his fists on his hips and closed his eyes.

"Look...I'm really sorry I didn't tell you, but it was for a good cause."

"A good cause? You expect me to believe that you kept a secret from me these past two years? I can't believe this..." I turned away and crossed my arms. Knuckles walked up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders, turning me back around.

"Listen to me, Lauren. I never told you because I knew you would want to come with us back to our planet to help...when your planet needed you more! I..." He stopped for a second and looked away, then looked me in the eyes once again. "I just...wanted to keep you safe...Lauren. Can't you see...I don't want you to get hurt in this battle...I really don't." He looked down a bit and my eyes widened slightly. My hand raised to his cheek and I kissed him on the lips softly, hoping he would think differently, but as we kissed, he then pulled away and stared into my eyes. I realized that now...would be a better time than never.

"Knuckles..."

"Yeah...?"

"Can I...ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"How do you feel..." Knuckles blinked to the question and I took one of his hands, holding it softly. He held mine as well, then looked to me again.

"How do I feel about what?" He asked. I took his hand and made it place on my stomach. Knuckles blinked again and looked down to where his hand was, then back up to me.

"How do you feel...as if this...is just the beginning...for us as a family...?" I replied with a sudden smile. His eyes widened a bit, knowing exactly what I was talking about. Knuckles put his hand on my cheek and got closer to me.

"Y-You...You mean..." I nodded and smiled more.

"It's true, Knuckles...you're going to be a father..." I smiled even wider and felt a few tears well up in my eyes. Knuckles couldn't believe what he was hearing. He smiled wide too and hugged me, holding me tightly. He was suddenly so happy he couldn't let me go, but he finally got a hold of himself.

"Lauren...I love you...so much."

"I love you too Knuckles..."

This indeed was the beginning of a new generation, but as this was only the first two weeks. A longer time was awaiting us...but we had to do something about Mephiles before a new member arrives...


	17. Chapter 17

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 17

News

Another day had passed and it was now morning. Sun has risen just over the horizon across from the house we were staying in, almost every house near us abandoned because of the recent attack from Mephiles and long ago attack from Iblis near here. I stood only a few feet from my father's grave, eyes drooped halfway. I slowly let out a sigh, placing a hand on my stomach, it being far away from getting any bigger at all. Knuckles was indeed happy to being a father, which is why he, Sonic, and Silver were out partying in the barn like any guys would do when they new they were going to be a father. No drinking was involved of course, due to my mother giving them advice not to, but when she did it seemed that she was treating them like children rather than adults, so it kind of concerned me at first.

The wind had blown softly as I looked back behind me from the view of the graveyard, to seeing many cars coming through the intersection across from me and a nearby gas station. I've known the owner of that market there for as many years as my father had worked there, so I decided to pay a visit to him after so long. I jumped across the street with ease and landed on a step near the curb of the street and was about to walk inside the store, when a car had stopped near me when there was a red light in the section, and a window had rolled down, followed by a young voice calling out my name. I looked back and blinked, spotting that same young girl that Knuckles had saved before when Iblis had attacked.

I immediately recognized the face because of Knuckles' description and walked up to the car to speak before the light changed green. The young girl smiled and looked up to me from the back seat, the mother smiling as she looked back to see us talking.

"Heehee, I'm glad you're here taking care of us all Miss Lauren! I love what you can do, it's awesome!" She smiled wide and it made me smile as well, speaking back to her with a soft tone to my voice.

"Hehe…glad you love it." I smiled at her with my hands placed in my pockets. The mother of the girl looked to me and smiled.

"You have a great gift, Lauren. God really must be smiling down on you right now." This made me blush a bit and I nodded, believing in Him with everything I had.

"Heh, yeah…thanks so much." As soon as I was about to say good-bye to them both, a young man who was driving a black mustang, seeming to be a 2009 model with a white racing stripe going down the middle of it, looked and saw that I was talking to the two, and decided to peek out the window of his window to interrupt.

"HEY! Why the hell are you talking to that troublemaker?! You're gonna get yourselves thrown in jail if you get near her any longer!" My eyes shifted over to the man and my eyes narrowed, letting out a 'hmph' from my mouth, glaring slightly at what looked like to be just another young male who was shaping himself to look like a thug. I looked a bit closer as the cars in front were about to take off as soon as the light turned green and blinked, seeing something I didn't notice at first. That man…was the thug who killed my father! My eyes quickly widened and I growled, stepping in front of the car and placing my right foot on the front hood, stopping it in place and putting a deep dent in the hood and front bumper.

The young man grunted to feeling the airbag coming out of his steering wheel and was almost knocked unconscious, but quickly took a knife and popped the bag, letting out the air and then got out of his damaged car. He growled more and spoke loudly, trying to get something through my head as I stood there, at least a foot shorter than him, staring into those criminal eyes of his.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DESTORYIN MY RIDE, HUH!? I SHOULD JUST KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW!" He shouted, but before he could get another word out of his mouth, my hand grabbed onto his long white t-shirt and I dragged him across the ground by a few feet and then slammed him onto the hood of his car, still keeping a firm grip on the collar of his shirt. He shouted in pain a bit and opened his eyes to see that my own eyes had turned a darker green than before, them slowly turning into slits. I was silent for a second, but I finally opened my mouth and spoke in a low yet intimidating voice.

"…You're the one who killed my father…I don't know how you could've gotten away…but good news…you're here…and I can get my revenge for what you did to me and my family…" I started to squeeze his throat with a bit of force and he shouted more, gagging and grabbing my hand to get it off. His feet kicked a bit to try and hit me, and he began punching at my face, but I barely budged with each hit. A small smirk came across my face and I tossed him aside into the parking lot where the gas station was and laughed to myself.

"Seems like you have no life…to be killing off others…for your own AMUSEMENT!?" I suddenly flickered over to the man again and raised my fist for the final attack on his head, his eyes widening and his own life flashing before his eyes, but as I was about to throw it, three policemen came out of nowhere and grabbed both my arms and the third one's arms wrapped around my neck to attempt and stop me from doing what I was. A fourth policemen came to the young man and did help him up, but was also being arrested for running away from the police after the murder he did a few days back.

I grunted, beginning to struggle, but as soon as the man was out of my sight, I calmed down, my muscles relaxing and finally the policemen let me go, letting me hit my knees. My hands were placed in front of me, and I was staring at the cold and hard pavement in front of me, slowly feeling a few tears fall down my face and hitting the ground, suddenly becoming small drops of ice laying on the ground. One of the policemen walked up to me, but another figure, seeming a bit bigger in size, but not in a policeman's suit and kneeled down. I slowly looked up, my tears still welling up in my eyes and noticed that it was the owner of the gas station, Bob Lloyd. I blinked and stared for a second, and then he helped me to my feet with a small smile on his face.

"Long time no see, Lauren. How bout we go inside the store and talk for a minute?" I nodded and wiped my tears away and walked with him inside the store. One of the policemen nudged him and whispered as I walked in, waiting for Bob to come inside as well.

"I'll be sure to tell her, officer." He nodded and made his way inside the store behind me, going behind the counter, urging me to come behind it as well. As I turned the corner, I couldn't help but look out a nearby window, seeing that the police were fixing things up outside where the car was and taking away the thug who had killed my father.

"…Did…Did I really do all that…" I said with a soft voice.

"I'm afraid you did, Lauren. And I have to tell you something…" He sighed and looked to me as he had just given a customer his change for them to leave, leaving the store empty, only me and him standing there. I looked back to him and sat on a nearby stool next to the register and sighed a bit, looking down at the ground, but he brought my attention back up after he told me what he wanted to tell me.

"Lauren…I know this may seem hard for you right now…losing your father, becoming a mother, and being a hero to us all on earth…but…there are limitations as to what one person can do and how much a city can take. I'm sorry to have to say this but…" I looked up to him and blinked again, awaiting his answer.

"…You're gonna have to be arrested…"

"W-What…w-wait you can't arrest me! I haven't…I…b-but this isn't what was supposed to happen…if you try to arrest me I'll need to fight back! What if Mephiles attacks and I'm not here to defend you?!" I shouted standing up out of the chair. Before I could say anything else, a ring surrounded in a light blue aura had been shot over top of me, quickly wrapping around me, tying around my arms and mid-waist with great force. I grunted loudly, feeling a large amount of electricity shocking the very consciousness out of me.

The shock was too powerful for me at the moment, and a thud was heard of me hitting my knees and falling face down onto the floor of the store. My bangs had covered my face a bit and I was knocked out cold. A short chuckle was heard coming from the next room near the counter and a short figure about my height had stepped out, that light blue icy aura surrounding his entire newly formed body.

His quills were now all crystalline formed, small sharp crystals sticking out on the end, eyes blood red, and eyes that same poisonous green that was witnessed before. The tips of his fingers were of the same crystals, and also with the poison seeping out of the tips of the claws. He let out a laugh of pure evil and looked to Bob.

"Hmhmhm…hahahaha…why thank you Mr. Lloyd for distracting her for me…as long as this ring is around her, she will not be capable of using her power…now for the deal?" Bob nodded slowly, getting something out of my pocket and handing him what seemed like the white Chaos Emerald I had gotten from Knuckles before they went back to their world and handing it to Mephiles. He looked to the emerald's sparkling outlook and began to laugh, fading away into the faint mist of the wind blowing through the store. Bob looked down the unconscious me on the floor and sighed.

"I'm very sorry Lauren…it was either you…or facing certain death in front of the entire world…" Bob picked me up and carried me outside where the policemen were waiting for him, then they took me and put me in the back of the nearest cop car, taking me away and to the nearest jail in town.

If Mephiles really wanted my body…why didn't he take me over that instant? It was indeed confusing to the policemen who heard his story…but didn't want to face death without thinking of the consequences from turning me into the police.

I was now going to jail…and I can't use my power to break free from that ring…what was Mephiles' plan? And what would he do next to make my life more miserable than it was now…?


	18. Chapter 18

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 18

The "Other" Half

The dense walls of the prison were barely keeping themselves under maintenance. Its high built fences were lined with hundreds of watts of electricity, seeming to be dangerous to any outlaw that would try to escape from it. Several feelings of wind were upon my body, one being a colder feel to my face. I felt a strange hand touching mine as they wondered if I was awake, mostly they were human guys nudging me on my arm. As I began to open my eyes, I felt the ring around my waist still had that same bit of a shock inside my body so it would shock me a bit more to keep me at bay. I grunted in pain and curled up against the seat that was placed in the corner. Most of the guys scowled to seeing my face, but I looked up to see them all crowded around me, some cracking their knuckles and smirking.

My eyes opened more and then narrowed, seeing them all with their outlaw faces.

"...If..you know...what's good for you...you'll step..away..." This didn't scare them one bit, they only circled in closer around me, some raising their fists about to punch. My eyes narrowed more and I waited for the upcoming pain. That is until one guy spoke up in a low toned voice.

"Keep...off of her...she's mine." It was the same guy who had killed my father, sitting up against the wall with one arm resting on his leg. I looked past the guys as they moved out of the way and I blinked, then found the guy getting up off the ground, coming toward me. A slight growl came from my mouth and the guy just smirked.

"Well then Lauren...look at what you've become...a yellow freak who thinks she's a hero...but is really just an alone bitch." He smirked more and landed a quick punch across my face, leaving me with my head turned and a bruise on my cheek. I kept my face turned, but my eyes shifted back to the guy with great anger in them. The guy's eyes were different than last time, but it didn't matter to me at the time. My eyes quickly narrowed and I launched my feet over the guy's head and landed on my feet with my back turned to him.

"You really think...that this thing can hold me..." My arms stretched out, slowly stretching the ring to an extent where a cracking noise was heard. The ring finally snaps and shatters into nothing but little pieces that crashed onto the floor around me. My hand then raised back to the guy and a light green color had surrounded it, along with the guy who was threatening me. He growled a bit and then smirked, knowing exactly what I was about to do next.

"Why don't you save your energy...hmhmhm...you might need it." His hand quickly grabbed onto my throat and he sent an even bigger shockwave through my body that brough me to my knees and then to the ground. All the men around us had their eyes widened to see what was happening. My shouting had echoed through the room and through the entire building, all the policemen had quickly ran to the room, but it was already too late.

The man had already chucked me through the wall of the prison, allowing all the criminals to escape their cells. The young man stood there with his back turned to the police, and the police had aimed their guns at him, ready to shoot the runaway criminals. He had already snapped his fingers and all the policemen were shot back away from him. The young man started to snicker, and looked back to them all with nothing but a smirk on his face. That was then his body began to shapeshift...into something even more terrifying than Mephiles himself.

The young man had transformed his body into nothing but an anthropomorphic hedgehog, having the same stripes as Mephiles, but instead of icy crystals lining the edges of them, they were instead crystals made out of fire. They were ablazed with red points and a tad bit of fire and sparks coming off the edges. His claws were the same way, but a bit longer than normal. The same smirk, the same eyes, only inverted, and the same outlook...only fire. As I lay on the ground below his feet, he began to laugh a laugh so evil...it even struck the entire Earth's core down to the last molecule. I raised my head up slightly only to see his claw sticking right in my face, my eyes widened with a bit of fear, but also with great anger. The flaming hedgehog smirked more and showed his fangs, then picked me up by the collar of my hoodie.

"Hmhmhmhmhm...you are not a match for me any longer girl...there is a new evil in town...and I plan to get the power that have always desired for too long now...and you will aid me in obtaining it...hmhmhm...hehehehe.." His laugh grew and he threw me to the ground with great force and continued his dark laughter that reached every ear on this earth.

Whoever this guy was...sure meant business...


	19. Chapter 19

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 19

Defeat

The black and red hedgehog was still laughing as evil as he could, slowly making his way toward me. I looked up slightly holding my stomach from a sudden hurt, then looked to him completely and growled. In my head I knew if I took anymore damage, something would happen to the upcoming hero. I stood to my feet and my hands began to glow a bright green, eyes as well, and shot a few spears covered in telekinetic energy at him, attempting to slow him down. The hedgehog just laughed and swatted them all away with one hand. He started to smirk, having a mouth of his own and then laughed again, grabbing my hand and tossing me into a nearby building behind the prison. I grunted and got back up slowly, all the recent attacks draining me of all my energy. The hedgehog just again smirked and walked toward me with his perfectly, non-limp body. His fists clenched and a small amount of firey mist came out from the tips of his claws, slowly surrounding his hands and then arms. My eyes widened a bit to see this and backed up, holding onto my arm as I stepped back against the wall. The hedgehog finally got into my face and held his flaming arm up to my cheek, slightly burning it. I glared at him and finally spoke with a growl,

"Who...are you...ngh..."

"I am called many things my dear...but I am mainly known by the brother of Mephiles...in shorter terms...my name is Titan, Inner Demon of Solaris." My eyes then widened more and I stared into his flaming and piercing eyes of red. I shook and was suddenly froze in my tracks, unable to move or get away. Titan smirked more and moved his hand down to my stomach.

"I wonder what would happen if I did something here...hmhmhmhm..." He smirked evily and I growled a bit, grabbing his flaming hand, even though it was burning me and growled more. Titan did nothing but laugh, but was then interrupted by a blast of green and yellow Chaos Energy. The two attacks that were dealt were of two figures, a hedgehog and an echidna, none other than Knuckles and Shadow, shooting a Chaos Spear and a Chaos Claw down at Titan to get him away from me. I fell to the ground holding onto my stomach to keep from any more harm as Knuckles came to me and helped me to my feet, worried.

"Hmhmhm...well well what have we here. A couple of heroes come to save their puny little friend...hehehe, how pathetic of you to save such a traitor." Knuckles eyes narrowed, not believing a single word out of Titan's mouth, Shadow standing there with hands blazing with yellow chaos energy, about to attack again.

"You are in no place to speak, Titan...leave this place...go back to your brother and leave the kid out of it." Said Shadow as his hands got brighter. Titan just chuckled and flickered over in front of Shadow's face and jabs his palm into it, sending Shadow flying into a nearby building.

"SHADOW!" Knuckles and I shouted as we saw him crash into the wall. I growled more and was about to step forward to attack but Knuckles quickly grabs my arm and pulls me back telling me not to fight. I growled and looked to him, then calmed down to realize he was right. Titan did nothing but laugh at this, but he slowly flew up into the air and a bright red aura surrounded him.

"Soon you all shall see...what the true power of Solaris will be! AHAHAHA!" He laughed loudly again, almost shattering each window that was around us. Knuckles quickly covered me and I cringed hiding in his arms. A few pieces of glass indeed pierced into Knuckles, them being his back and shoulder, he growled and grunted in pain and I looked up to him to see that he was hurt. My eyes began to shake as I looked at him then Shadow. We couldn't handle Titan at the moment...we could only run and rest up to fight him next time. I growled and reached for Knuckles' hand and then pointed my hand toward Shadow.

"Chaos...Control!" I grunted and finally teleported to a far away place, which wasn't Hillsborough anymore, but another place known as Myrtle Beach. I knew that there..we would be safe...for now. Titan smirked evily and laughed more, shaking the entire planet in his evil presence.

Only time could tell if we were able to defeat this new evil or not...until then...we needed to rest up to find out...


	20. Chapter 20

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 20

The New Hero

The sun rose high over the horizon the next morning with a slower pace than usual. At Myrtle Beach it was natural for the time zone to move slower, only because it was how Mother Nature wanted it I supposed, but since that attack by Titan, I was worried as to what would happen to my upcoming child. I placed a hand onto my stomach as I sat on the sandy ground around me, having already taken care of Shadow and Knuckles' wounds from the encounter. They were now resting inside a small log cabin that I had found one year while my parents and I were on vacation. Knuckles was in one room laying on his stomach, having bandages around his back after taking out all that broken glass, while Shadow was in a bandage around his forehead and behind his ear, having a few pieces of glass pierce behind his ear and hitting his head onto the building pretty hard.

"Hmm…the sun looks even more beautiful at the beach than at home…why is it that I never enjoyed coming here before…?" I thought to myself as I stared out at the crystalline blue ocean. My hair began to blow in the soft wind around me and a few palm trees behind the cabin were softly blowing as well, soft sounds of the leaves falling from it and to the ground. One of the leaves that was still green had fallen onto my arm and I looked to it, taking it off my arm and staring at the still lively color green, it not rotting from the blistering cold of winter.

"The leaves still haven't lost their color here…? But…how can that be possible?" I held the leaf up to the light of the sun, its shadow covering part of my eyes and I blinked. My eyes narrowed a bit and I noticed something in the leaf that I never noticed before: A small aura was inside of it, shining barely with every effort it had to keep itself alive. My green eyes then widened to realize what it had been doing the entire time it was on that palm tree.

"This one was hanging onto its life…with everything it had…but it still hasn't withered away yet…" That was when the leaf began to change a certain red color. I blinked and noticed that it finally started to wither and rot away in the cold winter air. My grip slowly let go and the rotting leaf finally blew away in the wind, finally letting go of its last remaining life source as it blew away from me. I sighed after a minute of watching it then looked back to the ocean. That is…until I heard a very familiar voice calling my name from afar.

"LAUREN! HEY OVER HERE!" I blinked and looked to my right. Standing there were two figures in nothing but their bathing suits, also them being one male and one female. My eyes widened to seeing these two. The male being the one I have had a crush on for so many years, and the other, the female, the one who's been the same old bookworm of our high school class. I stood to my feet and ran up to them both, embracing the female in a hug, her having to bend down to me a bit.

"Oh my God, Alex, Austin! I can't believe you two are here!" I smiled wide as I let Alex go. She smiled down at me and laughed her squeal like laugh. I then turned my attention to Austin and he was just standing there smiling.

"It's good to see you Austin."

"Same with you, Lauren." He still smiled and I chuckled.

"Oh cmon, Lauren, you gotta see everyone else! They're all just a few minute walk from here." Said Alex as she was about to turn to walk off.

"Hold on…"

"Hm? What's wrong?"

"I can't leave Knuckles and Shadow behind…" But as those words escaped my mouth, another voice had been heard from the log cabin that Knuckles and Shadow were in. I turned there and blinked, seeing Shadow out of his bed and leaning up against the wall of the cabin. My eyes widened a bit to see him out of bed so early and I ran to him to help. Shadow hung onto me for a second but then looked at me straight in the eyes.

"Don't worry about me and Knuckles…go on and catch up with your friends…I'll take care of everything here."

"You sure Shadow…"

"I'm sure." He let a faint smile come to his face and I smiled back, nodding and letting him go, knowing he was able to stand on his own. I looked back and noticed that Alex and Austin were waiting for me. Smiling, I finally followed them back to their own spot on the beach. I guess this is what it was like to have old friends back, but at the same time I didn't really want to be around them. I was just happy to see that they were still safe from all that's been happening.

During that time, Mephiles nor Titan had been attacking. Crime had died down and everything was slowly getting back to normal on my planet. A few random crimes were here and there, but police and firemen had it all under control.

So long it was then almost a year of peace. The nine months had flown by, getting to know many new people, helping out with many of the reconstruction that was going on back in Hillsborough and many other cities in North Carolina. Soon…everything was back to normal…and now…Knuckles and I finally had the chance in between this timeline to get ourselves married and raring for the new edition to get here. About a month late it was until we finally had a young echidna boy being held by my mother.

I was obviously passed out in my hospital bed, Knuckles holding one of my hands and rubbing it softly as he smiled to see my mother taking care of her new grandchild. Knuckles then looked to me again, noticing that I was waking up from the recent labor inducing pain in the past few hours. My eyes opened and my mom stood to her feet, finally handing my newborn son to me while I sat up in my bed.

The little boy had much resembled his father, Knuckles, having red fur and some bangs in front of his eyes. His eyes were light green and his muzzle was as light as mine was. I smiled, pushing a bit of his hair out of his face and chuckled, looking to Knuckles.

"Ya know what, Knuckles…?"

"Hm?" He blinked.

"I have the perfect name for this little guy." Knuckles smiled and looked to me then back to the little one.

"What is it?" It was then that I couldn't hold any tears back. They streamed down my cheeks and I smiled more.

"How about…Frank?" It was then the young echidna began to giggle, seeming to enjoy the name, his small hands had reached up to my bionic dreadlock in front of my face and grabbed onto it, trying to pull, but couldn't at the time. I just smiled as Knuckles put a hand on my cheek and kissing my lips for a second.

"It's perfect…Frank the Echidna…welcome to the family…"


	21. Chapter 21

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 21

A Crystal's Dimmed Shine

It was again the winter time at the beach. Many people have left the beach a few minutes ago from their recent vacation time and it was now a new home for me and my new family: Elaine, Shadow, Tails, Sonic, Silver, Knuckles and now my new son, Frank, who I had named after my father. December was the month once again, Frank had already known how to walk since he was of course from an egg, he was indeed a special little boy. I smiled as I sat on the couch of the newly revised cabin on the beach, while Knuckles was sitting beside me, having an arm around my shoulders. Frank, or Frankie as we sometimes called him, was on the floor with my mother sitting on her back riding on her like a knight on a horse. My mother laughed as she playfully walked around on her hands and knees pretending to be a horse for him as Frank giggled and held onto her with everything he had. As they played, a short sounding screech was heard outside, but it was only heard by me. I glanced out the window and saw a figure standing out the window, that same figure that was in the shape of Mephiles' spines and glowing blood red eyes. My own eyes widened and I started to shiver, but as I did the figure suddenly disappeared. Knuckles looked over to me and blinked, trying to shake me a bit to get my attention. I finally snapped out of it and shook my head.

"Hey, you okay hun?" Knuckles asked holding his hand to me. I took his hand and nodded to him.

"Yeah...f-fine..."

"You sure?"

"Yes..."

"...Ok then." He laid a soft and long kiss on my cheek and I smiled to him, but then looked out the window again. I knew I saw Titan outside that window, but it was nothing to worry about now. But as we thought it was okay to relax, a loud sounding screech was heard from above the cabin. All of us covered our ears from the sonic wave and it was too loud for Frank, so he began to cry out and held onto my mother in fear, not knowing what it was. I rushed over to them and took Frank from my mother's hands and held him close. Frank buried his face into my shirt and chest, still crying from the loud sounds around us. My legs began to shake from the sound and I was close to collapsing with Frank in my hands, but Silver rushed to my side and held me up, while Sonic, Knuckles and Shadow ran outside to see what was going on. My eyes closed and I still held my child close to me. Silver offered to take Frank for me and I thanked him. Frank held his hands out to his so called "Uncle" Silver and he held onto him while I moved myself outside to see where the sound's origin was.

A sinister laugh filled the sky and my legs got shaky again. I turned my head and looked up at the sky, only to see that one abomination that plagued me for almost a year. Titan the Dark was floating high above us with nothing but a smirk on his face, showing the same kind of fangs that I would see in Scourge's mouth, but sharper and more piercing. My eyes grew wide again but they quickly narrowed to the point til they were almost closed. He had the nerve to come to my new home and interrupt my family's time together was a big mistake. My first action was the intent of my hardheaded self.

I jumped onto the top of the cabin and launched myself high in the air toward Titan. My fist had landed a solid but powerful punch across his jaw and his head only turned slightly, barely budging or twitching. He only turned his head back and stared me in the eyes. Next thing I knew I was slammed onto the ground on my back with so much force it got me almost knocked out for a good while, but I regained my consciousness after a few seconds. Shadow came to my side to help while Knuckles was fighting quite evenly with Titan. Titan smirked and rammed his fist into Knuckles' stomach, causing him to spit up a bit of blood and then kicked him back with great force into a nearby palm tree. I looked up and noticed that Shadow was helping, but also to see my husband slammed against the tree and about to be finished off.

I quickly slipped away from Shadow's grasp and rammed my elbow into the back of Titan's head, but once again he barely budged. Titan smirked more and shoved his own flaming elbow into my stomach, burning it slightly and making me stumble backwards a bit. I grunted in pain and growled at him, knowing he was about to attack me again. All I saw was his blood red eyes in front of my green eyes, staring at them with even more evil than before.

"Hmhmhm...I have no use for your pathetic planet anymore...Mobius is already ours...and you cannot do anything about it...but...there is one thing I must do here before I return home." Titan grabbed my neck and squeezed tightly, lifting me up in the air. Shadow and Knuckles attempted to punch and kick at him, while Sonic sped around sending windy blades from his kicks, but Titan was one step further. He used me as a shield for most of the attacks and the guys backed off. Titan finally dropped me after feeling a slight burning from his back, softly steam coming off of his body.

"You better get your hands off my daughter!!" It was my mother, using at least a few gallons of water from the ocean behind her on Titan. As I hit the ground, my eyes widened to see my mother standing in the shallowest part of the ocean shore, already creating crystals spears from the water. She had somehow gotten the power of ice over the years as well, but refused to use them until now. Elaine chucked a few spears at Titan, but he only swatted them away, most of them hitting inches from me. I yerked and attempted to throw a few pieces of metal that I created from the sandy ground, but he only moved slightly like a ghost and dodged them with ease. Titan's next move was not wasted. He flickered his firey body over to Elaine and she yerked, falling back into the water behind her, still trying to fend him off with water bullets and ice bullets. Nothing worked. I charged at Titan again and he only raised his hand to me, shooting a massive amount of flames into my face, but I blocked most of them with my arms held up and I was shot back into the sand.

Titan then turned to my mother again and smirked more. Elaine's eyes widened, knowing she couldn't do anything else to get him away.

"Hmhmhm...you're weakness is obvious...fire can dry out water and ice...you're mine." He smirked more. I looked up and noticed that Titan had my mother in his grasp slowly wrapping a firey rope around her, drying her out of her power. Steam was coming off of her and I couldn't do anything about it, except keep punching away as well as Knuckles and the others helping. There was some kind of odd barrier around them so we could not get through to save my mother. Titan laughed once more and tightened the rope, burning Elaine's waist and finally she shouted and fell to the ground. He then let her go and looked back to me with a definite evil smirk, almost like a psycho smirk, and chuckled.

"Well well well...looks like your mother couldn't take the heat, girl...AHAHAHA!!" He laughed even more and finally disappeared in a red flaming swirl, sending ashes and sparks of fire around him, leaving behind few patches of fire burning around us. My eyes widened more,

"MAMA!" I rushed to her side and placed my hand underneath her head to lift her up. Her eyes were closed for the moment but suddenly started to open slightly. My own eyes blinked and I tried to help her up, but she put a hand on my cheek, wanting me to stop. She knew her time in this world was overwith, but I didn't want that to happen.

"Mama? Mama!! No, don't leave me yet! MOM!" Tears were already dropping to the ground like a stream, cleary not wanting my mother to leave me behind. She looked to me and her frown turned to a smile. With barely any effort, she reached for a ring on her finger and took the blue jewel that was on her forehead and handed it to me. I blinked and took them both, realizing it was the jewel she used for controlling water and ice. I looked back to her after setting the objects down and cried more.

"Mom, p-please...d-don't leave...I don't..w-want you to!!" I cried more and she smiled at me, her eyes slowly closing and drifting off into a long deserved dream. Her hand finally dropped onto her chest and she had finally left the world. My eyes closed halfway and tears were still streaming down my cheeks, still shouting the name of the one who brought me into this world. Knuckles came up to me and attempted to hug, but I pulled away and held my mother's body close to me, sobbing.

"M-Mama...Mama no...please...I can't..." I continued to sob, holding her body close to me, but Knuckles put a hand on my shoulder, then wrapping his arm around me. I softly set my mother down and grasped Knuckles in a tight hug, not wanting to let him go. Sonic's ears had dropped slightly and Shadow was only looking away with his eyes closed. Silver had been looking out the window the whole time with Tails, and Frank's eyes blinked, not understanding what was going on. He could only see his grandmother's body on the ground. He tried to speak, but could only still speak small words,

"Gamma! Gamma gamma!" Which was his way of shouting "grandma" and wanting to go to his grandma. Silver blinked and tried to hold him from squirming around.

"Hey, easy, whoa! I don't think you should go out there..." Said Silver with a worried look on his face. Frank looked to him and tilted his head. Silver's ears lowered and then he looked to Tails, who's expression said it all. Elaine wasn't coming back at all.

I continued to cry on Knuckles' chest and he held me closer than before, rubbing my back slowly and shushing me to get me to calm down. Shadow looked to Sonic and nodded. Shadow walked up to us and picked up my mother's singed body, hoping to be careful as he did so. Sonic walked off as well as Shadow did, me looking up to see that they were taking her away. My eyes widened and I shouted,

"NO! SHADOW! COME BACK HERE WITH HER!" Knuckles then held me back, knowing that I was going out of control again, not wanting to leave my mother's side. Knuckles held onto me while I struggled and Shadow only looked back with his eyes narrowed.

"Lauren! There is nothing you can do anymore!" He growled slightly as he kept walking.

This was one battle I couldn't win alone. If I were to defeat Titan, I would need as much help as I could get...


	22. Chapter 22

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 22

No Return

The next few hours was the heardest on me. Frank was in his father's arms while I was standing in a tree behind them. Silver, Sonic, Shadow, Tails and many of my relatives again were of course in mourning because of yet another loss of a hero, but at the same time angry because of what Titan had done to their dearest sister, mother and friend. My mother's grave was made entirely out of ice, since after she died, an icy aura surrounded her body, encasing her inside that casket. I stared down from the tree branch with my arms crossed, still crying my eyes out for this loss and the other.

Even Scourge the Hedgehog was standing somewhere on the scene, hoping he would carry SOME support for me and my family, but I only glanced at him for a moment, wondering why he was even there. I looked back at where my mother's funeral was held. The icy casket was being lowered into the ground, it being invulnerable to any fire and unable to melt. My head hung down and my tears started to form, running down my cheek like a stream. I had already gotten to pay my respects to my mother and I just walked away from the grave as they were putting her in. My hair covered my eyes in a shadow and Knuckles looked up to me with Frank sitting on his shoulders. His eyes drooped a bit, worried as to if I was okay. He walked up to me and looked up with Frank crawling down to his arms.

"Hun...are you okay?"

"...Yeah...fine."

"Mama. Mama!" Frank held his arms up to where I was and flailed them a bit, wanting me to come down. I blinked and jumped down from the branch and took Frank from Knuckles' arms. Frank giggled and hugged my neck and nothing but a smile was on his face. I couldn't smile at the moment, but I had to for him. If I didn't, he would worry and so would Knuckles, even though he already was. I held Frank close and kept my smile for a moment, then it finally went away when I heard a voice inside my head, but it was nothing but laughing...evil laughing. My eyes narrowed and I stared at the ground for another minute. Knuckles put a hand under my chin, knowing what I was hearing. He kissed my cheek and kept his forehead pressed on mine. His own smile went a bit away after I spoke to him.

"...I'm going there..."

"Hm? What?" My eyes stared down again, without looking into his eyes. He blinked and brought my attention to his eyes.

"I said I'm going there Knuckles..."

It was then we found ourselves back at our home in Cedar Grove, Knuckles having nagged me the whole way wondering why I was leaving. With Frank in his arms he walks in the door while the others stayed behind to help with the last minute cleaning up of the funeral home. I walked to the closet and reached for a small brown bag inside, starting to pack a few thing in it. Nothing much, but enough to last me for at least a days. Knuckles set Frank down in his crib in the next room, telling him that he and I had to talk, then came to me putting his hands on my shoulders and turning me around.

"Lauren! Why won't you tell me anything?..." He asked with a concerned look on his face. I refused to answer at first, I just looked down toward his chest, but he quickly brought my head back up.

"Lauren, hun, please...tell me...why are you going to Mobius?!" His eyes drooped a bit to see how serious I was, but I still said nothing for another minute or so. It was then I heard a soft gasp from Knuckles and I looked up more to see that his head was hung down, eyes covered in a shadow. I blinked and finally I spoke,

"Kn-Knuckles...are..are you okay...?" I placed a hand on his cheek and felt something...different that I have never seen Knuckles do before. My hand was taken off and a single drop of his tears had gotten onto my glove. My eyes widened and I looked closer. Knuckles the Echidna, toughest of all the characters I've ever known, was crying. Over me? But it wasn't like him to be crying about anything! I put my hand on his cheek again and kissed his lips softly. He blinked and closed his eyes, and his hands slowly moved down to my waist, holding me close. Both my hands were on his cheeks, with my forehead pressed against his.

"Knuckles...I promise you I'll be fine...I won't let Titan and Mephiles take over Earth or keep your home any longer..." I stared into his eyes and smiled at him, still serious about my decision. "Please...don't cry anymore...that's not the Knuckles I knew about for so many years...and finally marrying him...and having my own family...was really a blessing to me."

My eyes began to tear up as well as his. I wrapped my arms around him and held him closer than I ever had before, as if not wanting to let him go. He held me closer as well, but then kissed me on my neck, wanting me to be safe in my travels.

An hour had passed and I was now with everyone on a certain spot on the beach. Frank was happily sitting on top of the green hedgehog Scourge's shoulders, Scourge actually smiling up at him, wanting him to stay still or they'll fall in the sand. Silver chuckled to seeing the sight, and then looked to where me, Knuckles, Sonic, Tails, and Shadow were standing around in a circle.

"So...how were you gonna get there, Lauren?" Asked Tails with his two tails swaying slowly.

"That was the one problem...there's only one way TO get there...and Scourge has the answer." I said as we all looked to Scourge who was still almost tumbling with Frank on his shoulders.

"Scourge..."

"Hm...? Yeah yeah..." He walks up to us with Frank on top of him and reaches for something in his jacket pocket. He stops in front of me and takes out a black warp ring, handing it to me.

"This is the last warp ring in existence...there are only a handful of them we can use nowadays...and this one will take you to Mobius...but after it's used, it disappears...unable to be used again." Said Scourge setting Frank down on his feet. Frank stumbled over to my leg and grabbed onto it, calling my name quietly like any little kid would when he shows affection for his parents.

This would be my last day on Earth...I had already lost both my parents, but what of my family? What do they have to say? It wasn't anything I could do for the time being...but I opened the ring, said goodbye to everyone around me, and finally walked in. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done...for the good of my family...I had to get rid of this abomination once and for all...even if it means sacrificing my own self to save them from evil...


	23. Chapter 23

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 23

Titan's True Identity

I now came to the one planet that I had wanted to visit in a very long time, but I had never expected it to be like this. A drop of sweat fell down my face as I glanced around.

The trees were all nothing but ashes and ice was covering at least every other branch like just small chunks of solid ice, unable to be melted. Good thing was that I was behind a large boulder that was also covered in ice, hoping to hide from most of Titan's firey cronies or Mephiles' icy minions. It was then I noticed that the sky was blood red, the same blood red color as Titan's eyes and a tint of an icy swirl in it like the clouds from Mephiles' aura. I gulped and kept my quiet nature at hand, slowly moving around the corner to see what I was up against first.

It was then I spotted someone down toward the bottom of a large hill that I was on. I couldn't make out who it was at first, but I knew they were in trouble because of the many Titan clones down toward the person, surrounding them with no chance of escape. I reached into my bag and pulled on the ring from my mother and put the jewel in the middle, along with the new telekinetic powers I received from Silver's training, and my father's metal bending, it would be a piece of cake to destroy the clones. I reached my hand back and jumped up over the boulder, raising some metal from the ground and made many arrows out of it all, then chucking them all at each clone dead center where their heart would be and destroyed each one with no problem. I landed a few yards in front of the one in distress and was on one knee with a serious look on my face, not facing them.

The voice I heard from their mouth got me to open my eyes more and look back with concern,

"…L-Lauren? Is that y-you?" They asked in a soft but quiet like tone.

"…No way…" I looked back to them and noticed who it was with my first guess. "C-Cream…?"

"I'm not dreaming am I? Is that really you, Lauren?" Another stare down was in progress, but at the time it was no time to be staring. Cream had grabbed onto my hand and jumped back up to the boulder with great speed and power and hid with me until the other suspicious clones were gone. We both sighed and sat beside each other, starting to smile. Cream was just too excited to see me, and now being at least nine years old, she was still a bit young to be fighting on her own, but she grasped me in a tight hug and I hugged back, happy to see her after so long. Her outlook changed a bit as well.

Having a bit of hair from the top of her head like her mother, Vanilla, it was tinted a tan color with a small white streak in it for looks. Cream's outfit was the same orange dress she had always worn, but this time longer and with a black belt around her waist and light blue shorts under the dress that reached to her knees. Her tennis shoes were blue with a brown stripe that matched her eyes, which really gave her a tougher look, but at the same time a cuter look as well. There was only one thing I wanted to ask her at this moment, realizing that there was someone missing. The little one who always hangs around with her and never leaves her side,

"Cream…where's Cheese?"

"She's been taken away from me, Lauren…that Titan character took her away into that castle!" She pointed toward a castle in the distance, similar to the castle from the Anti Mobius and I blinked, narrowing my eyes a bit.

"Hmm…alright Cream…I'll help you get Cheese back. Here…take this." I reached in my bag and pulled out another Chaos Emerald, the green one in fact.

"Huh? You found a Chaos Emerald…"

"Found it when I first got here…but be careful…Titan and Mephiles already have two of them. With whatever they have, they'll try and destroy us with no holding back…we just need to find the other four emeralds and we're all set." I said giving her the Emerald. Cream looked to the emerald then me and nodded.

"Okay…you be careful too, Lauren." She hugged me again and then let me go, smiling up at me, still having me as a positive role model. We both went our separate ways and ran off into different parts of Mobius, searching for the last four Chaos Emeralds.

Meanwhile, Titan and Mephiles were busy conversing with each other about how to deal the final blow to my planet Earth and how to deal with me. Titan, with his blood red eyes was pacing back and forth wanting some action right that moment, him being the type to want to run out and destroy everything in his path. He looked to Mephiles who was doing nothing but sitting on the main throne that was set in the center of the castle and scoffed.

"Hmph…why can't we just go out there and destroy the brat? We already know she's here, so why don't you do something about it? Brother, you know as well as I do that there is someone else out there that hasn't appeared to the brat yet. If that happens we're as good as dust in the wind! Never to be returned to this world!"

"Now now…just because you are my anti-self doesn't mean I am your brother, Titan…you are in no place to be standing up to me…remember…I brought you here and I can take you right back out…" His voice was so sinister and low that it actually struck a nerve inside Titan. A drop of cold sweat fell down his face, but soon turned into steam that gotten him angry.

Titan is the born anti of Mephiles the Dark. Mephiles being born of nothing but poison and ice, Titan is the anti made up of fire and lava. Titan's fire power is so incredible; it beats even that of a volcano. It was said a long time ago that Titan had become the god of fire after destroying an entire planet out in the distant universe. After his rampage, his own anti self, known as Mephiles, came and put him down to his misery after defeating him in a grueling battle of anti brothers. Titan revealed himself in his true form as well as Mephiles, before he came to Earth doing the same, and finally destroyed Titan in his attempt to take over Earth, Mobius and Anti-Mobius.

"Hmph…so what if you brought me back?! I can still take you down right here if I wanted to Mephiles! After all, fire beats ice." Titan smirked a bit, becoming confident in his sudden remark, but found himself bound to the wall with out Mephiles even moving a finger. Titan growled in pain, feeling the burn of the hard cold ice that was wearing him down of his firey blood, but was soon let go and onto his knees. Steam had been coming off his fur as Mephiles got up from his throne to walk to him.

"This is your last warning…destroy that echidna…if you do not…I will take you down first and then kill the girl myself…" He clenched his fist, him being in his normal state of a hedgehog now, and glared down at Titan. Titan knew what he was up against: His anti self was more powerful than he expected when he was revived. He then stood to his feet and wobbled a bit, nodding to his brother and finally walking out the door to fulfill his duty. Mephiles, still having his own mouth, smirked at the fact that he knew Titan could not defeat me. He knew that I would have no problem burning the ashes out of Titan, and was just waiting for the right moment to strike on his own. Mephiles began to laugh his dark and sinister laugh once again, shaking the hearts of Mobius' remaining life forms.

If this was the true work of Mephiles, then Titan would have to find a way to kill me once and for all…who knows how it will end…but now that me and Cream have set out to find the Chaos Emeralds…only fate will tell…

In the background noises of Mephiles' castle, there were two very different sounds coming from what looked like a cage, but the figures unable to be seen. The two sounds were that of a small round blue creature, and a small white and brown one…both crying their animal cries wanting to get out of the cage. Mephiles smirked at them both and snickered.

"Hmhmhm…do not worry my prisoners…I will have my revenge on Lauren Berry soon, and then you will be free to do whatever you like…that is…if she even gets here…hmhmhmhmhm…hehehehehe…AHAHAHAHAHA!!"


	24. Chapter 24

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 24

Titanic Turnaround

Cream's unique rabbit abilities really helped her in getting to higher places of the castle. She knew that this castle was a terrible place to be, but had to find the remaining four emeralds and try to get the two from Mephiles before it was too late. I had already found two more emeralds so that made three for us and two for Mephiles and Titan. Only two were left. Cream was now hopping her way toward the top of the castle where the peak of it would be. She, with a new kind of glove on her hand that allows her to climb walls easily, peeks over the side of the peak and looks around. Cream was always the quiet type, so she got past the several Titan clones with ease as she flipped her way over to another part of the castle, hiding behind a wall around the next corner. She looked over to a window and her eyes narrowed a bit, noticing that there was a small light on behind the corner of it. Cream looked closer and stepped forward, but didn't realize that there were a few clones from the lower levels spotting her and shouting "intruder" in everything they said.

Cream gasped and stepped back, attempting to hide again, but was soon having to run away from a few clones that found her. She ran as fast as her rabbit feet could take her and then found herself face to face with the real Titan. She quickly stepped back and placed a hand over her mouth, suddenly surrounded by many of Titan's clones. Titan smirked seeing the fear inside her, but was then shot in the back by a sudden slamming of metal creaking onto the back of Titan. That attack came from none other than me, finally having the last two Emeralds in my bag, and using them to upgrade any attack that I had in me. Titan looked back and smirked more, showing his fangs,

"Hehehe…well well…look who we have here. Come to save this little friend of yours?" At that moment, two clones from behind grabbed onto Cream's arms and a third one held up a firey bladed knife up to her throat. She yelped in surprise and her eyes widened.

"L-Lauren, h-help!!!" She yelped again as the clones jerked her to keep her quiet. My eyes narrowed and I growled.

"TITAN! You let her go, this has nothing to do with her…this is between me and you, got it?!" I growled more, my anger slowly building and another jet of water starting to form around my hands. He shook his finger a few times and a few of the clones came up in front of him, their hands a blazing with fire. Plus the ones holding Cream had tightened their grip and held the knife closer to her throat, as if about to slice it open. A drop of sweat fell down my face and I just let my hands go back to normal and I dropped down from the spear I was standing on.

Titan chuckled at this sight, knowing that I was giving up to save Cream, but it wasn't all he knew. I had my hands raised up surrendering myself and Cream was astounded. How could I give up so easily? Only a few minutes passed and Titan had my hands tied behind my back. He then circled me and smirked even more, finally having his chance to kill me. Titan kept his circling motion as he spoke,

"Hehehe…so…should I kill you the quick way? Or do it painfully slow?" He snickered as one of his claws came up against my cheek, burning it and leaving a small deep gash. I grunted in pain and just stood there, eyes closed tight and showing no fear whatsoever.

"Ngh…I ain't afraid of you, Titan…what makes you think I'll let you hurt Cream and take over my planet, eh? Seems to me like it's a damn pathetic plan." I smirked as I said my remark, opening my eyes too see that Titan's expression had changed. He snaps and the clones let go of Cream, allowing her to run for cover, but she stood there, knowing that there wasn't a fight yet. I stared Titan in the eyes and just smirked.

"Why is it that you were so insane back then, Titan? What made you go off on your little rampage? From what I hear, you did it because you wanted to be more powerful than your anti, Mephiles-" He quickly landed a backhanded slap across my face, burning it slightly again and growled with his eyes narrowed all the way.

"You're in no place to speak, girl. I wanted my own power, but Mephiles never gave me the chance. He came to the anti world and shattered my one chance at becoming the god of fire. He was already the god of ice until I came along."

"So…why did you go out of it?" I grunted looking back to him. He grabbed onto my throat and squeezed a bit.

"I went insane because of something that my brother said to me…"

"And…th-that…would be?"

"…Why aren't you like me? You may be an anti, but you're only just another mortal waiting to be killed." Was the voice in Titan's head from Mephiles.

"And you…ngh…never wanted…this?"

"Of course I didn't you brat…" He shoves me down onto the ground, Cream coming to my side to untie me and help me up to my feet. "…I only wanted to become a god…all the power I was unleashing was because of my godly power! Mephiles never knew what it was like! He was never a god like I was! That's why he wanted to destroy me…to see if he could become a god. Hmph…I realize this doesn't really make sense to you…but I have my mission now…and if I fail, I will be sent back into oblivion!" His hands began to surround in flames, but was stopped by a jet of water from his front. I smirked and lowered my hand. Titan was not amused, but he would suddenly turn the tables after asking a question,

"You…hmhm…you still have the power of my former god self don't you?" My eyes blinked and it struck me. Titan is the current descendant of Solaris and he was reincarnated by Mephiles to unleash his revenge on me. My eyes then widened to an extent where I was now scared out of my mind.

"I…I thought I destroyed every bit of him…h-how could he…b-be…"

"Still alive? My dear, he's always living when there's even the smallest molecule left behind." I then gasped and stepped back.

"The ashes…from the lava monster Iblis…that was left…so that's how he's still here…he's…in y-you…" My teeth had gritted and the pupils in my eyes had disappeared. I knew exactly what Titan was going to do next. Titan smirked more and lunged his body at me, suddenly turning his body into nothing but a pile of red tinted smoke. I couldn't do anything about his next move, except for attempting a punch toward the smoke, but his body had gone into mine, colliding with all my nerves and causing me to stumble back and shake violently. My eyes began to turn a dark red color and I grunted in pain, holding onto my head as I stepped back. Cream gasped and her hand rose to her mouth, shouting my name over and over wondering if I was alright.

Of course I wasn't. Titan's smoked form was starting to take me over, if that's what they thought would happen. Instead, Cream looked closer and noticed that I was already calmed down and gasping for breath, my eyes closed tightly and grasping my throat, trying to breathe. I opened my eyes and heard Titan's voice inside me. One that I could only hear.

"Alright you…I've had enough of Mephiles' actions…it's time you unleashed the true potential of Solaris on this bastard! Will you do it?!" He shouted in my head.

I stood to my feet after stumbling a bit and grunted, opening my eyes more, showing that they had turned dark red. Cream stepped up to me and I nodded to her saying I was okay, then spoke,

"C-Cream…"

"Yes?..."

"Titan…is going to help us…he wants us to destroy Mephiles for good…are you in?" I panted as she held me up.

"…Yes. Yes I will. I'll do whatever it takes, Lauren." She replied with a big smile on her face. I smiled back to her and was finally completely on my feet, ready to fight.

"But first…"

"Huh?"

"We need to find Cheese." I smirked at her and she nodded, ready to save her friend, but all we didn't know was that the other creature inside the cage, would definitely strike something inside me for the worse…


	25. Chapter 25

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 25

Flaming Encounter

It was then I knew exactly what I had to do in defeating Mephiles once and for all. Me and Cream had made our way back down toward the entrance of the castle and were about to enter. That was until Titan's voice echoed around both of us.

"Don't you think you should get more firepower BEFORE you get your asses kicked?"

"Easy with the language, geez…" I rolled my eyes but suddenly felt a nerve strucked inside my body and I shouted in pain, holding onto my chest, panting. "W-What the…gah!"

"Better watch your mouth kid…I'm part of your body now and I can destroy it just like that…" Titan replied as he let my body feel comfort again. I gasped and coughed a few times, but soon shook it off after Cream came to my aid.

"Alright fine…sorry about that…but what do you mean by firepower? We already have five of the seven Chaos Emeralds…why can't we-"

"You need more than the Emeralds to beat him…"

"Then who else is gonna-"

It was then a bright light shined behind us. It was of a bright red color and at the same time, a circle of flames was surrounding a certain spot there behind us. Cream blocked her eyes from the intense light and I only winced, getting ready in case it was an enemy. I stopped and looked closer,

"Wait a minute…I know that light…huh…" My eyes widened and I smiled wide to finally see who was floating there in the light.

It was a lavender colored creature, like a cat, with hair pulled up on the back of her head. Her gloves were spiked around the cuffs, being white, and her outfit was almost the same as I have seen her with. It was the same purple robe around her, except that it was tied around her waist, but now with a white dress like shirt, sleeves somewhat going down to her elbows and small yellow rings around her wrists. The same jewel was on her forehead and she was now wearing a pair of white flared pants, but with the same red boots as before. I smiled more as she approached us with nothing but a smile as well, and stopped a few feet in front of me.

"Well well…Blaze the Cat…The pyrokinetic being from the future." I held out my hand to her for a quick handshake and she took it.

"It's good to finally meet you, Lauren. I've heard a lot about you and what has happened. And I heard you needed some extra power in defeating Mephiles." She smiled letting go of my hand. I nodded to her and explained what just happened with Titan, and of course spoke with only his voice being heard and Blaze understood every bit of it.

"I have just the thing for you…but it requires handling a massive amount of power."

"I think I can handle it, Blaze. And I think I know what you're gonna give me." I smirked and she nodded, handing me a bag. Cream and I looked inside and there were the seven things that I needed to help Titan in his mission. They were all shining their own color, but a slightly different shape than the Chaos Emeralds.

"Hehe…the Sol Emeralds…just what we need." I smirked more and Titan's laugh was heard. Blaze smirked as well, telling me a few more details about Mephiles' power, I accepted and thanked her, but another thought came to my mind.

"Blaze…why don't you join us in kicking Mephiles' butt?" I said.

"I'd be honored to, Lauren." She bowed to me and came back up with a fist clenched in front of her face.

"Hmhmhm…alright then. Let's get Cheese out of that castle and get this overwith…" I put the bag around my waist and took off into the castle with Cream and Blaze.

**1**

Every attack we used here and there was not missed. Many clones from Mephiles' evil bane had been attacking us from left and right, but we always came out on top of each one. Cream actually had gotten a black belt after seeing how much I had fought back on Earth. She got so inspired that she took classes of self-defense and other martial arts and was now a black belt of her class. I was already impressed by the moves she used, them being almost the same as the ones me and Knuckles used on Earth. Meanwhile, Blaze was on my left side sending blasts of fire energy and had also learned a few new tricks. She somersaulted, front flipped, and many other gymnastics she had already learned she used to her advantage. As Blaze rolled around, several sparks of fire were being sent out and destroyed each clone with one hit each. As for me, I was sending several blasts of telekinetic energy, and a few jets of water and metal bending was thrown in there as well, slicing through anyone in my path. It was then that I had a little plan for a sudden upcoming of a small army of clones. I smirked and took out the green Chaos Emerald and began to mutter something,

"The seven Emeralds are the servers…" The light shined brightly around the emerald and I held out my hand with it floating in front of me. "Alright Cream…time for the Chaos Home Run." I smirked back at her and she blinked, then knowing exactly what I was talking about. This move I had mentioned was actually a double move that involved me and her in a double attack. She jumped in front of me and then hopped high in the air as I sent a wave of chaos energy around her. Cream, being only nine, had gotten very smart over the past three years and nothing was able to hurt her from this move, having done almost the same with Cheese, and shouted out that she was ready. I held her up in the air with Chaos Control, still with that green aura around her and shouted,

"Alright, take this! CHAOS…!"

"HOME RUN!" Cream shouted in unison with me and I jumped up to her and sent a blast of wind with one of my kicks at her back, sending her spinning in a ball down at the army of clones, making a shockwave of chaos energy that sliced through each one with ease. Cream bounced off the floor and unrolled herself, landing down behind me as I landed one knee with my hand on the floor in front of me. I smirked and watched as the clones disappeared into nothing but dust and mist. I stood up to my feet and Cream came up to me, grasping me in a hug, happy to see that our move worked like a charm.

"We did it, Lauren! We did it!" She shouted happily. I hugged back and looked to Blaze, who was clapping, impressed by our cooperation.

*END 1*

We all then looked to the throne that was before us, its décor very evil looking and a small but poisonous aura was surrounding it. My eyes narrowed and Cream had let me go, standing beside me while Blaze came by my other side. The aura was way too familiar. I knew where we were now. Titan's voice echoed in my head only I could hear,

"This isn't the way I had expected it…be on your guard, kid." He said as his voice faded for the time.

It was then I spotted the cage where Cheese was being held, but my eyes then widened to see who else was in the cage. That other small creature was white with light brown spots on her, brown spots around her ears and one eye, tail curled up onto her back. I couldn't stand there any longer, I went behind the throne and up to the cage with Cream and Blaze following. The white and brown creature had barked, knowing it was me and her tail began to wag happily. I broke open the lock to the cage and opened the door, them both going to their owners. Cheese flew over to Cream and they were finally reunited, while the other one came to me and pounced onto me and sat in my arms. I hugged her with a few tears running down my face.

"Oh my God…Sandy! I can't believe you're here…I'm so glad I found you…" I held her close and she whined a few times, then licked my face, still wagging her tail. I continued to shake as I held her close, but then felt her being taken away from me with an aura surrounding her body.

"Huh?...What the…NO!" I grabbed onto Sandy and held her back, while she was whining and barking at whoever was trying to take her from me. My grip had finally slipped and Sandy was now lying beside the feet of the one being that had taken her away in the first place. My eyes widened more to see that it was none other than Mephiles the Dark, keeping Sandy in his grasp, as if trying to hurt her while holding her on the floor.

"It seems you have quite the relationship with your pet, Lauren…maybe I should break that bond…hmhmhmhm…" He smirked as wide as he could, then snapped and a loud whine came from Sandy's mouth. I gasped and noticed that he had not only hurt her, but had just knocked her out cold. My teeth then gritted and I began to growl.

"Why you son of a bitch…you just had to do that DIDN'T YOU!?" I shouted as I threw myself at him with a punch so hard across his face, it would've cracked his jaw, but he barely budged at the punch, then grabbed my fist. He smirked more and crushed his hand down on mine, almost breaking it, that is until Blaze had hit him in the back with a powerful blast of fire. Mephiles didn't wince, but he took me and threw me onto the ground in front of Cream and Cheese, who again came to help me up to my feet,

"Hmph…I have no need for the blue creature anymore, but I do have this one…" Who he referred to was Sandy, still having the same smirk on his face.

Mephiles was definitely toying with me this time…he kidnaps my dog and begins to threaten me with killing her…it was then I wouldn't take anymore of his tricks…it was time for me to end this before he hurts anyone else…


	26. Chapter 26

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 26

Hope Lost

It was not as easy as I thought it would be. The castle surrounding us and Mephiles was built high into the sky and each room was bigger than I would ever see. Sandy's body was still there alive, but she was knocked out cold by Mephiles' recent attack and her leg was almost broken as well. I had already stood to my feet and I grunted, glaring and narrowing my eyes as far as they could. Mephiles looked to me a bit closer and noticed something a bit different in my eyes. He narrowed his own and scoffed. Blaze, still behind Mephiles, attempted to snatch Sandy away while he was distracted. He smirked and looked back, but Blaze was already gone with Sandy in her arms. I looked to Blaze and nodded,

"Blaze…take her somewhere safe…please…"

"Right…be careful, Lauren…" She replied running out of the castle and quickly teleporting away from it. I then looked to Cream and Cheese with my eyes drooped.

"Cream…Cheese…I need you two to leave…"

"Wh-What? But Lauren I'm here to help you! You asked me if I could stick with you for this fight, and I told you yes!"

"Cream, don't argue! I need you to leave NOW!" I shouted back at them both, and they finally gave in to me, turning and running out of the castle. I turned back to Mephiles and he was already inches from my face with his palm pressed against it. I then felt my body being shoved into the wall behind me and feeling a crack in my arm. I grunted loudly in pain and hit my knees, holding onto my arm in great pain. My eyes opened slightly only to see Mephiles walking toward me with a bit of anger in those poisonous eyes of his. He could tell that I was getting weaker by the second, but decided to stop for a second. One of my eyes closed and I stood to my feet. Mephiles reached his hand back behind him and two lights had shown from the shadows. The two Chaos Emeralds he had gotten from me that long ago were in his grasp again. This time having the clear and yellow emeralds, Mephiles smirked and tossed them into the air, shining their light in the air and showing off their power.

I panted and reached for the bag around my waist with my five Chaos Emeralds in it.

"It's now or never, Mephiles...I WILL destroy you for good…so you won't bother my friends and family ever…again…" The emeralds had come out of the bag and began to circle me, but before I could even harness their power, another nerve in my body had been struck with tremendous force. I held my stomach in pain and shouted out loud. Mephiles stopped and his two emeralds had already turned a grey color, having lost their power to Mephiles' evil forces. I then hit my knees and heard that same voice, this time both of us hearing it.

"I told you we're doing this MY WAY, kid! Don't go heroic just because of your family! Do this my way or you'll DIE!" Titan's voice shouted out, "And don't think this is over my brother! I will get my revenge on what you did to me! And you say you're a god…but you're clearly WRONG!" Titan's spirited body had been seen behind me, his hand was held up to my head, it forming into a sword. I kept still, knowing what he was doing, and then looked back.

"T-Titan…d-don't do this…" I grunted holding my stomach from the pain. But as I said that, Mephiles' body had shifted over behind Titan's smoky body and smirked. Titan looked behind and his eyes widened to see a blast of poison and crystalline beam being shot right through his chest. My eyes widened, and I wondered how. How could Mephiles hit Titan in his state of a spirit? He basically just threw him out of my body because Titan had shown himself. Titan's body was then thrown aside and I stood to my feet, suddenly throwing a punch across Mephiles' face. Again, he barely budged to the attack and just swatted me to the ground with his hand. Mephiles floated there only a few inches off the ground and came up to me. I was still on my side, but I was trying to get up again, grunting slightly.

"Give it up, Lauren…you cannot win in your current state…this is just like last time…before you so called 'defeated' me, I featured something that you did not realize…" He smirked and picked me up by the collar of my hoodie. I looked up to him and grabbed his hand trying to pull him off, but he held me closer to his face.

"When you and that knucklehead husband of yours finished me off…I took into consideration that you had beaten me…but I then realized the power that was inside you…you have the non-controllable power of the god, Solaris…and there was only one way to get that power for myself…" He smirked and threw me down onto the ground on my back. I looked back up and saw his foot was on my chest, pushing down pretty hard, almost suffocating me. I gagged and kept his foot off long enough so I wouldn't choke.

"I had to wait 3 years for you to develop more of your new found power…I knew from the start that even in your human state you had the power…and the doctor who tried to succumb to that power…was foolish enough to come to me. He asked for my assistance, but found himself nothing but a lifeless corpse on the cold ground of this planet…" He smirked more and my eyes widened to their limit.

"E-E-Eggman…is…d-dead…? GAH!" He stomped down harder and I shouted louder, still trying to get his foot off.

"Indeed he is…and you will soon become the same…after a little bit of fun…hmhmhm…" His eyes suddenly opened more and his fangs were now seen shining in his mouth. My eyes got small, pupils disappearing, and the only thing heard from me was a yelp and a grunt, then…nothing else.

Mephiles' hand was clenched in front of me, making a small light come out of my chest. My hand suddenly dropped to the floor. That was when my body began to glow and shape shift. Mephiles quickly tossed me to the side and I rolled onto my side, eyes now with no pupils or irises. My fur had been taken off, as well as my entire body's skin had been taken off. The light around me was nothing but a light orange color, followed by small sparks of fire coming off me. My body was now a mass of orange and dark red lava like substances that had formed to my echidna body. Mephiles laughed his evil laugh and took the bag with the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds in them and laughed more, taking the power out of each and every one, turning them into nothing but grey stones, hitting the floor.

It was his body that had finally gone into his final form. His final state was that like the one he had 3 years ago, but a different twist. Each color of the emeralds were again on each quill and the tips of his fingers that were now crystalline claws, and his eyes suddenly turned completely white with no pupils or irises. His fur turned utterly black and was almost transparent, but was still visible to the naked eye. He began to laugh again and my body still lay there unmoving and not showing any signs of life other than the aura.

Mephiles was now all powerful as he could ever get. His power had reached ten fold and Titan was found dead against the wall of the castle. He looked to Titan and smirked, waving his hand over him, sending him into oblivion like he had predicted Mephiles would do. Mephiles then walked back to me and rolled my body over, staring me into my lifeless eyes. The sky had turned into a pure black color, getting the attention of every being on Mobius, even the people on Earth had seen this amazing power from across the galaxy, seeing every star had almost exploded around the planet, it being clearly seen that something happened. Knuckles looked up into the sky, holding onto my son, Frank and his eyes narrowed,

"…Lauren…please be okay…"

"Mhmhmhmhm…you think you have won…but it is I who have ruled over you, Lauren…your days are at an end…and there is nothing you can do to stop me! Hehehehehe…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!"

There was no hope left…Mephiles had gotten a hold of the Chaos Emeralds AND the Sol Emeralds…there was no chance…and I with my body lifeless, no one could stop him now…


	27. Chapter 27

\Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 27

Last Hope Lost

It was only a few moments before Mephiles had his chance to destroy the planet that he's been so willing to destroy for sometime now. My lifeless body still lay a few yards in front of his feet, while he was smirking as wide as he could, keeping the glint of his teeth at its top condition and then landed slowly and walked up to my body. The sky was now as dark as it could get. Clouds were a very dark grey color and rain began to fall, the drops of rain with their normal color hovered over every head and body near the Green Hill area. Mephiles' smirk continued as he stood over my body and moved it onto my back. My eyes were still lifeless as well, having no pupils or irises whatsoever. He chuckled and just stared down my body, its contents having just a firey aura with spots all over me colored dark red, looking like lava. Mephiles' finger ran across my chest, it picking up a bit of a lava like substance onto it. He rubbed two fingers together and the substance dissipated into his hand. Mephiles couldn't really believe what my body had become at this time, but also became curious as to how it happened. He already knew that my body had the soul and power of the god, Solaris, but he also thought about how I obtained it in the first time.

"Your power is off the charts, kid...I do not know how you obtained such a power for a human...it puzzles me to this...but I have what I need to take over your pathetic planet. Hmhmhmhm...there is no hope for your pathetic planet Earth now...hahahahaha..." His laugh was quieter now, but still as sinister as before. His hands were now glowing a bright purple color and a large warp ring had appeared above his head in a flash. He smirked more and flew up into the ring with his laugh growing, leaving my body behind, unable to move. Only a few seconds had passed and Mephiles had appeared back onto my planet Earth, exactly where my family was at, figuring out a way to try and transport back to Mobius, even without a Chaos Emerald. Knuckles was the first one to notice and his expression went from worried to angry. He knew that if Mephiles was here so quickly and with all that power he was giving off from the emeralds, something had happened to me. Since Frank was in Silver's arms for the moment, him having quite the affection for his uncle, Knuckles took the opportunity and charged full speed at Mephiles without thinking. Shadow, quickly coming from behind where Silver was, skated up to Knuckles and grabbed onto his arm, holding him back.

"There is no use for you to be wreckless, Knuckles! You'll get yourself killed!" Knuckles growled back at him and his eyes narrowed.

"He did something to her! I just know it!"

"THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU KILL YOURSELF TO FIND OUT!"

Knuckles stopped for a moment, staring down at the ground with his teeth clenched.

"You mustn't do this to yourself for her...she fought her hardest...there is nothing you can do, Knuckles..." Said Shadow with his low-toned and rusty like voice. Knuckles glanced up to Mephiles and just scowled.

"He won't get away with anything...not even to take over this planet...like he did ours. I won't let him!" Again, Knuckles pulled away from Shadow and charged ahead to Mephiles, who was now staring Knuckles down in an evil way as he always did.

"Well well...Knuckles the Echidna...you have the same hard head as you did three years ago...has it now CHANGED?!" Without moving barely a finger, his grasp was already around Knuckles' neck and was squeezing as tightly as he could, Knuckles grabbing onto his arms attempting to pull him off, gasping for air and grunting. Frank looked up and saw that his father was being strangled and shouted loudly,

"DADA!!" He squirmed around in Silver's arms, but Silver held onto him tightly, stepping away from the scene, that is until Tails stepped up to help him by taking Frank and flying away as far as he could to get Frank to safety. Silver glared up to Mephiles and wondered how he could come back to this planet so easily.

"This isn't good...shouldn't Blaze have gotten to Lauren's aid by now?"

"Is that an understatement, Silver? Mephiles has the Sol Emeralds now, can't you tell?!" Interrupted Sonic as his eyes went wide to see Knuckles suffocating. He sped off with his quick moving feet and ran upside a nearby tree, launching himself off at a higher speed, ramming his elbow into Mephiles' jaw. Mephiles felt a slight change in his grip and let Knuckles go, letting him fall to the ground, eyes shifting over to Sonic, looking at him dead in his own green eyes at the same time. Sonic's eyes widened again and found himself being swatted to the ground beside Knuckles, leaving under him and Knuckles, a crator that was so easily formed at least fifty feet wide all around them. Shadow was no different. He had jumped up in a bee-line toward Mephiles, conducting a massive amount of electricity in his hands, able to control lightning as he did before, thus slamming his palm onto Mephiles' stomach, shocking him with at least a thousand volts or more.

Only one problem. Mephiles felt nothing. Shadow's eyes narrowed and his mouth gaped open slightly in awe of what Mephiles had become, that is, before Mephiles landed a solid stab with the claws on the ends of his fingers into Shadow's shoulder. Shadow grunted in pain and was then thrown back onto a tree trunk, feeling his body shaking with poison that had suddenly seeped into his bloodstream. Silver realized that this was the time to use his own power, but Mephiles had already flickered his misty body over to Silver and thrusted his fist into his stomach, it digging deep and causing the white hedgehog to spit up a bit of blood out of his mouth. Mephiles smirked and then backhanded Silver into a nearby boulder that was at least twenty feet away from him. The hedgehog slammed into the boulder and made it crack into pieces from the impact. Mephiles' laugh got loud as he looked around at his handywork. Three characters were left: Scourge, who had just appeared on the scene after seeing the hedgehog from afar, Tails, and Frank, who were still flying away to safety.

Scourge's expression hadn't changed since he laid eyes on the evil hedgehog. He lowered his sunglasses over his nose and revealed his sky blue eyes, then felt a seeping aura around his hands and arms that glowed purple and bright. Scourge smirked, being confident, but maybe too confident. He attempted a full charge with purple spears surrounding his hands, but suddenly found himself stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened and his teeth grit tightly, the spears disappearing into nothing but mist. Scourge's sunglasses were then ripped off and crushed with one flick of Mephiles' hand. He scowled at Mephiles and felt himself being lifted into the air by the pointing from his finger.

Mephiles lashed his hand to the side and Scourge went flying into another boulder that was near Silver and it crushed Scourge underneath the debris of the recent shattering of the rocks.

Every character out there was knocked outcold by Mephiles', except for Shadow, who was making his way toward Mephiles again, even though his immortal body was flowing with the poison in his blood. Shadow growled and tossed a few lashing whips of electricity at Mephiles, but were found useless, and so was he. Mephiles walked to Shadow and lunged his foot onto the side of Shadow's side, sending him flying into the same crator where he sent Sonic. Mephiles laughed once again. There was only two remaining: Tails and Frank.

Tails had already found a spot across a cow field near my old destroyed home and hid behind a few trees, holding Frank close to his side. Frank was of course crying about the scene. He hadn't seen his mother in a while and he just witnessed his father almost being choked to death by the ghost. Tears flowed down his cheeks and Tails did his best to comfort him and calm him down from the attack. When all seemed calm after a few minutes, Mephiles had appeared above the trees where Tails was. Frank looked up and blinked, while Tails put a hand over his mouth, then placing a finger over his own, letting him know to keep quiet. Frank kept still and looked back up to where Mephiles was floating and shivered. Tails held him closer and Frank buried his face in Tails' furry chest.

If this was the end...then Tails and Frank would be bigger trouble than they thought...


	28. Chapter 28

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 28

The Real God

Tails' ears had folded back, unable to figure out what they should do for the next move. Mephiles' ears had twitched a few times, hearing the slight cracking of twigs and leaves underneath their feet and smirked wide. He turned toward the tree that they were under, but Tails had already flew off with Frank still in his arms, holding onto him for dear life. Mephiles was not amused, he landed onto the ground and bits and pieces of the grass and dirt around him to be burnt from a slight purple flame that had been surrounding his feet. Tails refused to look back for a second, but another voice told him to suddenly fly to his left. He didn't know where the voice was coming from, but he listened and quickly booked it toward his left side, heading for a short patch of trees that was covering most of the field. At the moment he did, there was a massive rope that had come out of the ground about to grab them, but missed. Tails looked back and noticed that, then diverted his attention to where he was going. A few moments passed and Tails had another chance to rest after spinning his two special tails for so long already. He panted and looked to Frank, who was scared out of his small mind and spoke,

"H-Hey...cmon...we'll be okay..." Tails patted his head softly and Frank just held onto him tightly, not wanting to leave his grasp. Tails panted a few more times and gulped. He peeked around the corner of the tree and spotted Mephiles right around it. His eyes widened and he whipped himself back around the tree, covering Frank's mouth once again softly and kept quiet for another minute or so. It got so quiet around them that only the wind was heard blowing through the trees. Tails' bangs had blown in the wind as well as Frank's, but another sound was suddenly heard that got Tails' sensitive ears to perk up and twitch. He slowly looked back around the corner and saw one of his greatest fears right in front of his face, forcing his eyes to widen to their limits and ears to bend backward over the back of his head. Frank looked up and screamed out, wanting Tails to run, but Tails was frozen stiff in his tracks.

"I got you now fox..." He began to reach for them, but Frank's scream got a bit louder and a sudden barrier was formed in front of Mephiles' hand, shocking it and sending him stumbling backward a few steps. Mephiles' eyes widened and he yerked to the shock.

"What the...how is that possible..." Mephiles wipes a slight cut from his cheek and saw his blood on his claw, cleary seen. "Y-You're just a kid...how can he harness this power already?!" It was then a voice was heard from behind him, it being familiar to him, Tails, and Frank as well.

"Maybe it's because his power...comes from me..." The voice was lower, but sounded a bit rusted, giving off a slight echo that was heard all around them. Mephiles turned to see a orange figure standing at least ten yards behind him. Tails shook off his fear and looked to them as well.

"L-Lauren...?"

It was definitely me, but in a different kind of form. My dreadlocks had gotten slightly longer, along with the spikes on my fists. My bangs covered one of my eyes, but they were only showing irises that were a light orange color. The fur on my body had turned into a pure white color, and a few orange markings had appeared on my dreadlocks. My clothes had changed as well: With a black hoodie still on me, it had a few white stripes on it like before, but this time my pants had turned completely white, plus my shoes turned a solid black. Nothing but a frown was on my face as I faced Mephiles and stared at him dead in the eyes. Mephiles froze in his tracks and that allowed Tails and Frank to run to safety once again and away from what was about to happen.

"H-How can you be alive?! I took your heart away from you!!" He growled.

"You may have taken my heart...but my soul is still a part of me...and with the Chaos and Sol Emeralds there with their negative energy taken...the positive energy was just there waiting for me to take it for my own needs..." I began to walk toward Mephiles with great anger and hate in my eyes, them glowing a bright orange color.

"Th-That power...you cannot obtain that kind of power so easily!" Mephiles' eyes had widened a bit to see how much of an aura I was giving off, but stepped back a bit, knowing that this energy I was showing was his greatest weakness.

"I've learned plenty about the old timey gods...Japanese, Chinese, Greek. Hehe...I've even learned how much power they had back in the old days...and I believe one of them had their eyes on me this entire time." My hand rose up to the air toward his face and smirked, holding a short whip made out of fire and light that lifted up to the daytime sky. The clouds turned as pure white as they possibly could, and the sun shone bright as my power grew.

**START 1** (I'M SO SICK.......FLYLEAF)

"I will break...into a thought...with what was written on my heart Mephiles...and you know what?" I smirked more and grabbed onto his throat with ease. "I will...BREAK!" A sudden blast of orange energy had come out of the whip and forced him into a state of paralysis. He grunted and fell onto his back with a thud and looked back up to me. I stood over him and my smirk turned into a frown.

"So...you go after my family and friends...and my own son...I can't believe you Mephiles. Bullying other people like that...is something I don't take too well..." My eyes then narrowed more, them glowing a bright orange.

"This is your last day on Earth...or Mobius...or ANY of the planets in the universe! You're dead Mephiles...for good..."

If what I said was true...this threat was about to be dealt with in a few seconds...but what Mephiles had planned next was nothing out of his power...


	29. Chapter 29

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 29

The Final Battle

I was just a few seconds away from ridding Mephiles of his being, his power, and any molecule of him with no problem, also ridding him of the Emeralds' power at the same time. The only 'problem' was that Mephiles, also known as the ultimate life form from the darkness, had already planned something while I was standing there talking in a monologue like any villain would do, but in my case, I monologue. I stepped forward and felt a sudden jolt of a rope wrapping around my waist, it being surrounded by a purple aura that looked as the same as Mephiles' poisonous power. My eyes only narrowed and I kept my stance the same as I stared into his eyes. He stood up to his feet and kept a tight grip on me as he walked toward my face. Him being taller, Mephiles looked down at me and smirked,

"I do not know how you are really still alive…but I will end what I started a few hours ago!" He took the grip tighter and threw me up into the air and slammed me down as hard as he could, leaving a crater that was at least thirty feet wide this time. He then grabbed my foot and slung me around into a nearby tree. I only grunted a bit and opened my eyes to find him lunging a fist into my face, but I quickly stopped it with one of my free hands, stopping it dead in its tracks. Mephiles growled and pushed harder, but got nowhere. That gave me the chance to counter attack, which is what I did. My hand crushed down onto his hand, him actually feeling something crack in it, even though he had the body of a ghost. Mephiles grunted and just threw me aside, holding onto his hand and feeling a few bones crack inside his hand. He looked closer and realized that his body was slowly becoming as normal and solid as my own body was.

At the same time, Tails was watching the entire scene from a far away place in the trees, but he then heard my voice shout from the field,

"TAILS! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" He then hesitated no longer. With Frank shouting out 'mommy' over and over, wanting to be in my arms once again, Tails twirled his two special tails and flew off at a high speed back to where Knuckles and the others were taken down by Mephiles. With Tails' new found power, he began to tend to the others' wounds with a special healing technique he learned from his own training. He was the doctor out of them after all. Tails looked back to hearing another loud bone cracking from Mephiles' other arm, it being shattered by one of my signature punches, where my fist goes onto its target, twists and then goes into an uppercut, shattering anything that gets in its path. In turn, this forced Mephiles to shout loudly in pain, but also to feel something welling up inside him from the immense power that I was giving off.

Apparently, this was not the only power I was showing from the sun goddess, Amaterasu. That particular god or goddess in this case, had lent me her power in order to keep my life for the time being I was fighting Mephiles. My smirk turned into a frown as I approached Mephiles once again. My hand had quickly lunged onto the bottom of his jaw, upper cutting him into the air, which was followed by my spinning axe that had been landed on top of his head, knocking him into the ground with amazing force. He grunted and the tips of his quills began to glow each color of the Emeralds. As soon as they stopped, the power of each Emerald had slowly becoming nothing but an aura of raw energy floating into the air. I floated toward the ground and landed on my feet softly a few feet in front of him. There was none of Mephiles trying to push himself up. Reason? He was stuck on the ground by a massive gravity force keeping him down flat on the side of his face, but face down.

"Guh…ngh…h-how…c-can you…obtain…this power…the power…of a god?! I-It's not…p-possible…" I stepped down onto his back and pushed down with a bit of strength and he growled in pain. The aura from the Emeralds were still seeping off of him, as if they had nowhere to go. My hand reached up to one of the auras and I grabbed onto it, clearly having a small grip. It was then I knew what I had to do to get the Emeralds' energy out of his body. With no question, I clenched my fist up toward Mephiles' face and a loud grunt was heard from his mouth, his eyes widening to their limit and a bit of blood seeping out of his mouth. I didn't speak at this point, due to what I was doing was hitting a big nerve inside me. I wasn't the killer type, but in this case I was to do whatever I could to rid this universe of the only threat that was capable to come back after just a simple defeat.

Each Chaos Emerald and Sol Emerald aura came up out of Mephiles and he was suddenly reverting back to his normal hedgehog state: The light blue stripes, no mouth, black fur, eyes a piercing green, and spines flared up like Shadow's. I took my foot off of his back and stepped aside, now with each Chaos Emerald and Sol Emerald floating around my body, shining their beautiful lights as if nothing happened to them. I turned back to Mephiles slightly and blinked,

"Mephiles…this is the last day you will see with your own eyes…you know me by now…I am not a killer…but when it comes to saving my family from a threat…death is the only option…I know you cannot really die…but you can be sent to where you sent Titan…and honestly…you will suffer…like you made my parents suffer…when you killed them!!" My eyes began to water, now holding that same light that was taken out of me from before. My so called 'heart' was finally returned to me, thus forcing my body to go back to its own normal state. The fur on my body went back to its yellow color and my eyes back to dark green. They were still watering when I spoke, but it didn't stop me from what I was going to do next. Mephiles looked up in sudden horror, watching the Emeralds dance in two circles around my body, and a clear coated white aura surrounding me. Mephiles knew this next form, for it was far more powerful than that of the Super form that had defeated him so many years ago.

"The servers are the seven Chaos…Chaos is power…power is enriched by the heart…the controller…" My fur began to turn the many colors of the rainbow, almost seeing just white. "…serves to unify the Chaos!" A bright white aura had blasted out of my body as the Emeralds disappeared for the time. Mephiles was then shot back onto a tree, feeling a crack in his back, forcing him to fall to his knees. He looked up to me, seeing that I was already grabbing him by the throat and squeezing with as much strength as I could. Mephiles gagged and tried to pull me off but found himself slowly limping limb after limb. I loosened my grip and he looked down to me after I had lifted him up.

"H-How…you m-must…tell me…h-how…"

"I already told you Mephiles…when you messed with me…and killed off my family…" My eyes began to tear up a bit more and my voice got a bit shattered. "…You pay the price…"

It was then a bright light had shown around Mephiles, and he knew what was about to happen. His eyes widened and he shouted,

"N-No…No…! NOOOO!!" His body was then shattered into a million blue crystal pieces, floating around my body, him finally being destroyed out of body, mind, and soul. There was no other trace of him now that the crystals had disappeared along with him. I stood in the spot where I had sent him away and looked down slightly, the white aura slowly fading away, and the Emeralds falling to the ground still with their great power shining around me. The seven Sol Emeralds had faded away as well, going back to their own time where they belonged and the Chaos Emeralds stayed, scattered around my feet.

A moment had just passed and many footsteps were heard going through the leaves of the trees in that field heading for me. I didn't look to see who at first, but heard a familiar voice shouting out my name. I looked over and everyone was finally okay. Knuckles was leading the group, with Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Scourge, Tails and Frank, who was still in Tails' arms, standing behind him. I blinked and my eyes drooped slightly, slowly losing feeling in my legs, thus falling onto my knees and falling to the ground. Before I felt the hard ground, I suddenly felt two hands catch me. Lying on my back with my head lifted off the ground, Knuckles had called my name several times before I had passed out in his arms. He grunted and picked me up bridal style and headed for the others. They agreed to go back to the cabin we had lived in for so long now and decided to stay there. The Chaos Emeralds were gathered, and reunions were in order.

This was it…the final threat of our two planets has been dealt with…but it was not an easy task…I lost my mother…my father…and a new foe in need was lost as well…I could not do anything about it now…but one thing is for sure…it was over. The final battle was over…and now…it's time to rest…


	30. Chapter 30

Lauren the Echidna Volume 2

Chapter 30

What Is Normal?

Mobius only after a few hours was put back to normal…its skies turning back to its light blue color, the clouds white and puffy, and the grass as green as it was before. The sun shone bright in the sky, it being daytime there and everyone was now huddled around a bed, including Cream, Cheese, Blaze, Amy, and the same old characters from before. Mainly Knuckles was sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for his wife to awake from her slumber. I was clearly out cold for at least four hours after Mephiles was disposed of, but I was finally coming to. Knuckles, who was also holding onto his son, allowed himself to sit a bit closer, wanting me to see the first two familiar faces when I awoke. My eyes slowly opened halfway and I looked over to my right too see Frank giggling and reaching out his hands to me, wanting me to take him in my arms. Knuckles laughed a bit and smiled,

"Easy there tiger. She might not be strong enough to even sit up yet." I blinked and began to sit up, with Sonic right by my side helping me up. I grabbed onto his hand and I was now sitting upright where I could see eye to eye with Knuckles. I then looked down to Frank and held out my hands. Since Frank was still aways from my arms, he would have to have my help to pull him over, but he stood to his feet on the bed and Knuckles sat there and let go with nothing but a smile. He knew what was about to happen, but I did not. Frank took small steps onto the bed toward me and I blinked, eyes widening slightly to see what he was up to. He continued to walk a few more steps until he was finally able to fall into my arms. I wrapped my arms around him and held him close in a hug, my eyes slightly tearing up. Knuckles smiled to this and spoke,

"He learned how to walk only a few hours after you left to fight Mephiles..." He still smiled and would reach out his hand to me. I took his hand and he kissed it softly, and Frank sat down in my lap, happily calling for his mother like any child would.

"…I-I can't believe this…after all this time…Mephiles is finally gone…and we're at peace again…" I began to cry tears of joy, unable to make it stop, which got Frank to tilt his head.

"Mommy. Nu cry!" He would stand up again and baby glomp me around my neck and I chuckled, still crying those tears.

"Oh…heh, I'm sorry, honey…" I wiped my tears away a bit and smiled at him. "How about that?" Frank giggled and looked up to me with his big eyes.

"Good good!" He continued to hug me until his Uncle Silver came up and would reach out to Frank. Frank happily reached back to him and Silver picked him up over his shoulders and would chuckle, smiling up at the child.

"He really has taken a liking to you Silver." I smiled to him and Silver nodded, blushing a bit.

"Hehe…yeah. I guess so." He replied. My attention then turned back to everyone else, such as Shadow and Scourge. Shadow did have a slight smile on his face and Scourge had nothing but his tough guy smirk.

"You did well, Lauren. I admire your courage and determination. You did the universe a big favor." He said and nodded to me, with his hands in his jacket pockets. Scourge scoffed to this and I blinked, knowing he didn't really want to say anything mushy for that matter.

"Heh…cmon, Scourge…surely you have something to say, despite all that's happened?" I chuckled a bit as well as Knuckles and Scourge just crossed his arms.

"Yeah yeah…you did good. Now I know who to pick a fight with when I get pissed off with blue over here when he doesn't entertain me." He would then let out a loud and hearty laugh, which got Sonic to turn to him and growl.

"Hey, you do know I sent your green hide to jail right?"

"I broke out remember?" He scowled and would smirk again, playing around with the blue blur.

"So what? You wanna go right now?" Sonic smirked his signature smirk and would speed out the door with his supersonic speed. Scourge laughed and followed after Sonic in a green and black flash. We all looked to each other and laughed happily, glad to have things back to normal. But after all that laughter died down, a moment of silence had passed. Knuckles looked to me with a sudden serious look on his face. I looked at him in the eyes and put my hand on his.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked with concern.

"There's…one more thing we gotta tell you…we have all the Chaos Emeralds…and well. Do you remember that the Emeralds have the power to grant wishes at times?"

"Yes."

"Well…we wondered if you wanted to try and bring back your family…your mom and dad…" This got me to freeze in my place and take my hand away. My attention turned toward the floor next to me, but what caught my eye was my pet, Sandy, standing there with her tail wagging happily. I patted the spot next to me and her two front paws reached up onto the side of the bed, her left leg wrapped in a bandage from Mephiles' damage to her. My eyes drooped and I sighed, petting Sandy behind her ear, her then licking my hand.

"Knuckles…I know you're giving me the choice to have them back…but they both died…when they were supposed to die…I guess God wanted them sooner than I thought…" I looked down more and my hair covered my eyes in a shadow. Knuckles sighed as well and called my name softly, bringing my attention back up to his eyes.

"Maybe you should think about what you want to do…" He smiled and would embrace his lips with mine, kissing me deeply but softly. I thought for another second with a smile and nodded,

"I think I have something…there's one person that deserves to live their life a bit more before they leave again…"

Blaze stepped up next to the bed and held her hands out to her sides in question, "Who would that be, Lauren?" I smiled and in the next few minutes, we were outside with the seven Chaos Emeralds placed on the ground in a circle. The wind of the day time sky blew softly through my dreadlocks and my hair as I raised my hands up into the air above the Emeralds. All seven began to glow their independent color and would rise up into the air before me and the others. They were all still curious as to who I bringing back to reality, so I finally showed them.

"The seven emeralds are the servers...Chaos is power…power enriched by the heart…the controller serves to unify the Chaos…" I began, "Great emeralds…I stand before you to aid me in a simple request…revive the one who deserves a second chance at life…since it was ruined by Mephiles…give him another chance!" My eyes opened wide and a serious look appeared on my face.

The Emeralds were now glowing their brightest colors and almost everyone had to cover their eyes in the light, except for me, who kept a close eye on who was forming in front of me. Everyone finally looked up to see the same black hedgehog from before, but with his body returned to normal, this time with orange stripes and yellow eyes. He had yellow rings around his wrists and ankles, and wore a pair of white shoes on his feet and with the same patch of white fur on his chest like Mephiles. He opened his eyes more and gasped, looking around him frantically until he saw who revived him.

"What…what the…" He blinked and stared at me with his yellow eyes.

"Heh…welcome back, Titan…you've been given another chance." Everyone's eyes were wide as to who my choice was, but kept quiet for what I was going to say next.

**1**

"Wait wait wait…why did you bring me back here?! Did you not notice that I was trying to kill you? Why?!" He wondered with a really confused look.

"I believe everyone has their second chance…my parents didn't want a second chance…they just wanted me to be happy with the life I have. You haven't gotten the chance to be happy with your own life, Titan…I suggest you get to it." I still smiled.

Titan was speechless for a moment, but I walked up to him to where I was just a few feet from his face, my eyes meeting directly with his. Titan blinked and looked down to his hands, which were covered with a pair of white gloves.

"S-So…I'm really alive…?" He asked looking back up to me. I nodded and just smiled.

"Yeah, Titan…you're alive. Now then…why don't we get this party started hm?" I chuckled and looked back to everyone else and they all cheered in delight that I was so eager to get this day over with. Titan actually smiled to me and would put a hand on my shoulder.

"Thanks, kid. You really saved my ass this time."

"Consider us even, Titan." I smiled back to him and Knuckles then came up beside me with Frank in his hands, him reaching for me again. I took Frank in my hands and nuzzled his nose with my own. Frank giggled and hugged me happily, then feeling me put him on my shoulders. Knuckles smiled at this and would ruffle through Frank's bangs, causing him to giggle more.

"Hehe, cmon!" I then ran off toward the field behind Amy's house and laughed, holding onto Frank's legs as he held onto my dreadlocks.

As we ran into the soft twilit sky, the wind around us was whistling a soft whistle that sounded like a song that was placed onto our hearts with proud sounds as it floated along the wind. Everyone followed behind me and we all had enjoyed our lives for the remaining years to come. Soon Frank grew up, became eighteen, and was living out his life like I did those many years ago.

It was then Knuckles, both in our thirtys, looked to me as Frank was training with his uncles and aunts, and asked,

"Question Lauren…how come you didn't want to become your normal self?"

"What do you mean by that, hun?" I blinked and smiled a bit.

"You didn't want to ya know…be a normal human again?"

"…Hehe…ya know…I've always wondered that…"

"Wonder what?" He asked with a questionable look. As I looked into the sunset that day, I replied to him with my eyes sparkling in the light,

"…What is normal?"


End file.
